Spellcasters
by Nora West-Allen
Summary: When the team discovers that one of their members is from world filled with magic they must add dealing with all the problems of the Spellcaster Realm to their to-do list. As confusions arise and more secrets are revealed the team heads down a path that will change them forever. Relationships will be tested as a face from the past appears to turn the world on its head once more.
1. Prologue

Prologue

Sometimes, your life goes a very different way than you think. For one little girl it went more differently than most. She was born to two loving parents in a place called the Spellcaster Realm. She levitated her first bottle at six months. At one year she changed the color of her bib. At age three she said her first spell. At age five she got her first training wand. She knew that she was destined to be a great Spellcaster. She would become a Level Ten Master Caster by the time she was twenty one. The youngest ever.

Her parents had always told her that she could do anything she set her mind to. They had. Her mom may have only been a Level Seven but she was a talented healer and had even trained in something called science. Her father? He was a Level Ten castle guard, head of his unit. People respected him. With people like them to look up to how could she not reach her full potential? Easy, by not having people like them.

When she was seven years old her mother came into her room. Her eyes were red like she'd been crying. For a seven year old she was quite aware, she had known that something was wrong. When she found out that her father was gone she cried. He had died in a protest at the castle. Some people just wouldn't accept the king as their leader and her dad had paid the price.

For the next year they tried to live their life normally. She attended school. Her mother returned to the clinic. They continued to hone their skills. It was all they knew how to do. By the time she was eight years old she had officially reached Level One. She was relatively on par for someone of her age. She had intended to be much farther ahead by now but her father's death took a toll on her. Her mother had changed as well. She no longer seemed to see the beauty in magic. She only saw it as the cause of her husband's death. Eventually she began to throw herself more into the alternative method of healing known as science. The girl didn't understand it, it made no sense to her. There was no reason for it in the Spellcaster Realm. It was around that time that she learned that there was another world than the one she knew. It was a place called Earth.

Earth was a place without magic, where people relied on things such as machines. It was not completely different from her home, there was a form of potion making known as chemistry though her mother told her it was not the same. She didn't see the draw. Her mother, however, was deeply intrigued. She became obsessed with learning everything she could about life on earth. Her moving there seemed inevitable, and it was.

At only eight years old, a little girl was whisked away from the only home she had ever known and taken to a place with rules unknown to her where she could never be her true self. Her mother told her that while magic was not forbidden the inhabitants of earth could never know it existed. She could never tell anyone about her former home or what she could do. All that she had left was enough spell books to get her up to a Level Three, if she was lucky, and an old potion kit. She hated leaving but she didn't have a choice in the matter, she knew that her mother might be driven mad by remaining in the Spellcaster Realm for much longer. Now, instead of a healer her mother was something called a doctor. The little girl was now an inhabitant of the place called Earth.

Years later she would learn more about this planet and it's connection to her home realm. She would learn about the pocket dimension that she spent the first eight years of her life in and how drastically it would once again come to alter her life. But for right now she just had to focus on remembering her new life. She had just moved from Keystone City, Kansas to Central City, Missouri. She had been home-schooled by her mother her whole life. Her father passed from an incurable illness. Most importantly she had to remember to forget who she was. She was no longer a Spellcaster. She was Caitlin Snow. She was normal.


	2. Chapter 1

Caitlin

Sunday, October 14th

It had been a few months since Devoe had been defeated. Things were slowly starting to get back to normal. The team was back to battling the daily crime in the city and were blissfully unaffected by any major big bad at the moment. Caitlin hoped that it would last forever. She hated the effect they had on the team. Plus, now she had time to focus on getting Killer Frost back. She hadn't had much luck. She had even tried a number of spells but none of them worked. For months she had poured through her spell books, once even attempting to re enter the Spellcaster Realm to find new material but backed out before she could actually do so. Now that she was old enough to face real repercussions for her actions and the actions of her mother she could not risk it.

Still, Caitlin was upset that her hidden abilities would be no help this time. It's not like she asked much of them. She would only use them on occasion in the privacy of her own home. She had never even used them to help out Team Flash though she had come close. It was probably for the best though, using magic around mortals was asking for trouble. There was no way of knowing if she were being watched, the castle had eyes and ears everywhere and Caitlin did not plan on attracting any unwanted attention.

Yet, at 8:30 in the morning Caitlin was sitting, staring off into space, contemplating the implications of trying one last spell before giving up on a magical fix for good, when a breach opened up in front of her. She knew instantly that Cisco was about to pop out of it but she panicked. She was still holding her wand. She was sitting in a lounge chair so she quickly shoved it behind her and tried to play it cool.

"Hey, did you forget about training today?" Cisco asked as soon as he appeared. She had.

"Oh crap, Cisco I'm sorry," was her response.

"Don't apologize to me, Iris is supervising," Cisco told her. "It's really not that big of a deal but you didn't answer your phone so I thought I would come to check."

"Yeah, my phone is dead ," she lied. Well, not entirely, she threw it across the room in frustration and couldn't remember the spell to fix it. Again.

"Okay, well you coming?" he asked.

"Sure," she said. Cisco turned to open a new breach and when he did so Caitlin reached behind her and grabbed her wand and slipped it into the back of her pants. She couldn't risk leaving it out of the safe. At least if it was on her she could keep an eye on it. She had it hidden as soon as Cisco jumped her through the breach. They landed in the speed lab a second later.

"Sorry I'm late," Caitlin said to the team.

"It's fine Caitlin," Iris said. "You're here now. I wanted to do Barry's weekly test, can you run vitals?" Caitlin nodded and went to stand next to her at the consol.

"Ready Barry?" Caitlin called. Barry gave her a thumbs up and Iris gave the go ahead.

It wasn't exactly a hardcore training session. Just a weekly tune up. Cisco and Ralph were basically sparring while they tested Barry.

"He's holding steady," Caitlin observed while Barry ran.

"He's not pushing it, that's for sure but we don't need him too right now. I wanted to see how long he could go before there was a fluctuation, we should have some time," Iris said. "Oh, yeah. I wanted to ask how your Killer Frost thing was going, you said you had some new ideas."

"Oh, uh, yeah they uh, didn't pan out," Caitlin responded.

"I'm sorry Cait," Iris responded. "I'm sure you'll think of something."

"Yeah, I don't know," she replied. "I mean, I have tried so many things, it is like all I think about but I still have nothing."

"Maybe that's the problem," Iris said. Caitlin looked at her quizzically. "Maybe you're think about it too much. You need to take a break and get a fresh perspective. Focus on something else for a little while."

"Focus on what?" she asked.

"Everyone here is always working on something, maybe they could use your help with something," Iris suggested.

Caitlin thought for a second. "I'll ask," she said but then noticed something on her screen. "Barry's starting to wear out."

"Okay Barry, you can slow down now," Iris said as she noted the time. Barry came speeding to a stop and collapsed on the floor of the speed lab breathing heavily. "You good?" Iris asked as she ran to check on him. Caitlin watched as his vitals returned to normal. "Okay, I think it's time for a break."

Cisco said that he was heading to work on something in his lab. Caitlin decided to check in with him a few minutes later,

"Hey," she said as she popped her head into Cisco's lab. He was working on something in a notebook. He glanced over his shoulder and slammed the notebook shut.

"Hey, what's up?" he asked awkwardly.

"What are you working on?" Caitlin asked.

"Nothing, just some calculations," he replied. Caitlin didn't want to push, she knew what it was like to want to keep something secret. She was suddenly even more aware of the wand at her back.

"Ok, well, I was just wondering if you needed my help with anything," she told him.

"Uh, no, not that I can think of," he said. He didn't look certain though. Now Caitlin could press.

"You sure? Not anything to do with that notebook?" she asked. Cisco shifted his eyes.

"Okay fine, maybe I do need your help with something," he admitted.

"Shoot."`

"I have this theory…"

"About?"  
"Pocket Dimensions."

"Like Devoes?"

"In a way, yeah," Cisco trailed off.

"You want to breach yourself into a pocket dimension don't you?" Caitlin realized.

"Not just any pocket dimension, I think that I can create my own dimension."

"If you could do that then it would be amazing! Why didn't you tell anyone you were working on this?"

"I was sure that I could do it."

"I'm guessing you're still not?"

"Yeah, but I think I'm getting close. I've been trying to focus on what I want it to look like and then opening a breach."  
"Did that work?"

"Not even a little bit but my calculations say that it should so I don't get it."

"I think that it would if you already had a pocket dimension to lock onto. Have you tried just using Devoe's?"

"I've used it to practice entering and exiting pocket dimensions but that's a lot more difficult than making my own. Plus, there is no way that I am using Devoe's permanently."

"Why not, it works fine?"

"Because it's creepy. Plus, I can do this, I know I can."

"Okay, well if you let me look at your notes maybe I can think of some other ways to try."

"Are you sure? I thought you were busy with your KIller Frost stuff?"  
"I need to take a step away from that for a while. I can help you instead but I think that you should tell the rest of the team too, we can put our heads together."

"Maybe but not yet, once I'm ready to test it again," Cisco finished and passed her his notebook. "We should probably get back though, more work to be done."


	3. Chapter 2

Cisco

Sunday, October 14th

Cisco followed Caitlin back to the speed lab. Barry was recovered and was arguing with Ralph about something that no one was really sure of.

"You guys ready to get back to it?" Iris asked the two re-arrivals.

"Yeah, all rested up," Caitlin said awkwardly. Caitlin was usually a good liar, maybe it was an off day. The rest of the training session went as normal, there were no further deterrents and finally everyone dispersed.

For his part, Cisco went straight back to his lab to look over his notes again. He hoped that with Caitlin's help he could finally make this work. No sooner than he thought that Caitlin appeared over his shoulder. "Have at it," he said, sliding the notes over to her.

"I'll get them back to you in a little while," she told him before flipping through them and walking out.

Now that she was gone, Cisco didn't have much to do and he was already frustrated about his idea not working right so he needed to find something to take his mind off of it. He tried to think of something else to do but after a whole minute of thinking he gave up and decided to attempt opening a breach to a pocket dimension his way. Maybe it would work this time.

At this point the speed lab was empty so he set up shop in there. He tried to picture a pocket dimension in his mind but could only see either real places or Devoe's pocket dimension. It's hard to imagine a place you've never been. Still he hoped it would work and so he created breach after breach after breach. He was finally getting tired by the time Caitlin made a reappearance.

"You know, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result," she said from the doorway.

"I'm not insane, just determined," Cisco gritted.

"Why is this so important to you?" she asked. Cisco sighed.

"It's not," he responded. Caitlin gave him a look and he relented. "Okay, fine. Maybe I care a little."

"Care to share?" Caitlin asked.

"It's a number of things I guess. For starters, I'm trying to avoid the fact that my relationship with Gypsy is over. Being determined is better than being drunk." Cisco started. "Another part of it is how things with Devoe went down. I feel like I didn't do enough."  
"What are you talking about? You did a lot to take him down," Caitlin argued.

"I helped Harry perfect the thinking cap that zapped his intelligence away, I breached us to Devoe's pocket dimension but that ended up being a trap. I didn't even really do much when it came down to the wire," Cisco started. "Barry destroyed the satellite, Cecile and Barry saved Ralph, Marleez defeated Devoe. All I did was move a few pieces of falling debris from a falling satellite but that was just grunt work. I feel like I need to prove myself. Show everyone that I can be helpful, that I can do big important things too."

"Cisco, you did more than you realize, you don't have to do big flashy things to be a big help." Caitlin defended. "Yes, you helped Harry make the thinking cap work but it was working without black matter, that part was him. It was what helped us get our edge. And maybe Marleez defeated Devoe but it was your vortex manipulator that Iris used to find her. Don't forget that you were the one who saved Barry from the speed force in the first place. If you had given up then things would be very different now. And you may think that all you did was move some falling debris but if you hadn't done that people would have lost their lives. You are a hero Cisco, you don't need to prove anything to anyone. As for the Gypsy thing, you can't move past it until you deal with it. Trust me."

Cisco didn't say anything for a minute. "Thanks Cait, you're right," he said finally. Just knowing that Caitlin believed him made a big difference.

"So are you going to stop being so hard on yourself about this?" she asked.

"I might let up a little, but I'm not going to stop trying to figure it out, it's still important," he insisted.

"I never said it wasn't," Caitlin maintained, "but maybe you can let the rest of the team in on your idea to get some fresh perspectives and we can figure it out even faster."

"Not a bad idea," he admitted. "I'll go talk to Iris, maybe we can add it to the roster for the next training. Thanks for being honest and knocking the sense back into me." Caitlin smiled but he could've sworn it looked strained. Or maybe he was just tired from his repeated breaching and he was imagining it. He didn't dwell on it too much because at that moment Iris walked past the entrance to the speed lab. "Iris, wait up!" he called and ran after her. Iris turned around in the hallway, she was carrying a bunch of papers and files. "You haven't left yet?"  
"No, I was working on scanning some of the older documents I found a while back, I finally had some time. What's up?" she asked.

"I've been working on something for a while and I didn't tell anyone about it because I thought I could do it on my own and that I had to prove myself but Caitlin made me realize that it wouldn't so bad to get the team's help so I was hoping we could add it to the next training session," he blurted in one breath.

"Yeah, sure, what is it?" Iris asked but she seemed unsure.

"It's nothing bad I promise," he said. "I've just been trying to figure out how to open my own pocket dimension. You know to use as storage or a safe haven, stuff like that."

"That's actually a really good idea," Iris said.

"Yeah, except I'm having some trouble making it work and Caitlin offered to help me but I figured more people would increase the odds of it working," he responded.

"Yeah, makes sense, actually, I think that most of the team is still in the cortex, Barry and Ralph were arguing about something and I think they were trying to look something up on the computer, we could run it by them," she said. "I don't know where Caitlin is though."

"She was just with me in the speed lab giving me a pep talk. Cait!" he called, popping his head back into the lab. Caitlin walked out into the hallway and gave a questioning look. "You wanna try and open our own pocket dimension?" Caitlin smiled and nodded.

When they walked into the cortex Ralph was sulking in the corner and Barry was talking with Joe who had just shown up. He wanted to check in while Cecile watched baby Jenna.

"Do I want to know what you two were arguing about?" Iris asked.

"Oh, it's nothing, something up?" Barry responded, walking towards Iris.

"Uhm, yeah actually, Cisco had an idea and he wanted our help to figure out how to make it work," Irisi said and gestured for Cisco to take the floor.

So, once again Cisco explain his plan to open a breach to a pocket dimension and how he had tried it so far but that it wasn't working. He even went over the math on the clear board and demonstrated what he had been doing.

"So, what do you think?" he finished.

"I think it's a great idea if we can make it work," Barry said. "But you're right, the math say it should work so there's something missing."

"Where exactly is this pocket dimension?" Joe asked.

"All around us, in the same way that other earths exist around us," Cisco told him.

"But I thought you wanted to create your own pocket dimension?" Ralph said confused. "You shouldn't need one that already exists right? Or am I not understanding?"

"No, Ralph, you have a point," Caitlin said. "You can't breach somewhere that doesn't exist and we can't exactly create a pocket dimension easily."

"No, but what if Cisco already has one?" Barry proposed.

"What do you mean?" Iris asked him.

"Well, think about how his powers work, his breaches, he uses them to connect two planes of existence but he's not exactly pulling them closer together, he has to travel through something," he clarified.

"Wait, that makes sense," Cisco said. "It's like the speed force, you can use it and move through it without actually seeing it all the time. I use a pocket dimension every time I use my powers I just have to figure out how to stop there!"

"And if you can do that you should be able to open a second breach there easier because you will already have the visual to focus on!" Caitlin interjected.

"Okay, how do you do that?" Iris asked. The scientists were at a loss for words.

"Too bad you can't breach into a breach," Ralph joked. Cisco perked up at this.

"Wait, maybe I could," he said.

"What? I was joking!" Ralph said.

"I know but it makes sense, if I open one breach, I can use my other hand to open a second breach right on top of it," Cisco thought out loud.

"It could work," Caitlin said. Barry nodded in agreement.

"Uh, could anything bad happen if you try this?" Iris asked.

"Maybe," CIsco replied. "The main thing is the could unravel and throw me back ,as long as I brace myself. Someone could hold onto me just in case."

"I'll do it," Caitlin offered.

"Great! Let's go!" Cisco said.

"Right now?" Iris asked. "You don't want to plan more?"

"All I've been doing is planning and testing," he responded. "If it doesn't work then fine but I have to try." His eyes pleaded for Iris to say yes.

"Fine," she sighed, "we can do it in the speed lab, at least if something blows up it won't be the console." Cisco did a fist bump and everyone filed back to the speed lab. "Okay, I promise this is the last thing we will try for the day," she said and then paused, "barring any extenuating circumstances."

"Everyone stand back," Cisco said.

"You don't have to tell me twice," Ralph said and ran up to the viewpoint. The others followed more slowly and Caitlin took stage behind Cisco to steady him.

"You sure about this?" She asked him.

"Are you?" He responded. Each gave the other a nod and Cisco took a breath. He blasted one breach and then another. He tried a few times but each time the first breach closed before the second could grow. Cisco was getting frustrated but Caitlin told him to calm down and just breathe.

"Maybe we should try again tomorrow Cisco," Iris said from the viewpoint.

"Just one more time, please!" He exclaimed. Iris paused and then nodded. Cisco took a deep breath and tried to blast both breaches in quick succession so that the first one was still opening when the second one started to form. The next things anyone knew, a bright blue light filled the room and knocked back the team. Cisco toppled backwards onto Caitlin while Iris tumbled into Barry and Ralph stopped Joe from falling over the railing. When everyone could finally see they looked up, a breach stood in the center of the room but it was slowly closing.

"How is it staying open without you?" Iris wondered aloud.

"I don't know but if it's a breach to a pocket dimension I have to find out," Cisco said and tried to get up to jump in.

"Wait!" Caitlin called and grabbed his arm, stopping him. No sooner had she done so did a black form shoot out of the breach before it closed completely. Caitlin gasped. Barry made an unidentifiable sound. Ralph jumped back at least a foot.

"What the hell?" Cisco asked.

"What is that?" Iris asked.

"Nothing good," Caitlin said, her eyes the size of saucers. "I'm guessing," she added after a moment. Her hand flew to her back as she stood up. For a moment no one knew what to do. And then they heard a deep screech and the room filled with smoke.


	4. Chapter 3

Caitlin

October 14th, 2018

Caitlin shoved her shirt onto her face as soon as the smoke hit her but it didn't stop her from coughing. "Get down! Smoke rises!" Cisco wheezed.

"Not this smoke," Ralph coughed. He was right, the smoke hung around the room like a black fog.

"How is that even possible?" came a muffled reply from Iris.

"We have to get out of here," Barry called hoarsely. Caitlin squeezed her eyes shut, the smoke was starting to burn her eyes. She couldn't do a spell with everyone in the room so her only option was to try to stumble towards the door. She felt someone bump into her and the following grunt revealed it to be Cisco. She heard Iris coughing somewhere in front of her and then a thump and a yelp from Ralph. When she finally stumbled into the hallway it took her a minute to adjust to the light. Her eyes and throat stung. Luckily the smoke didn't seem to be entering the hallway. The rest of the team stumbled out in quick succession, Barry came last, pulling Ralph with him.

"I fell over the railing," Ralph said, his powers apparently allowing him to recover rather quickly as he shows no sign of coughing. Joe cleared his throat a few times and Cisco gagged. All of them were somehow covered in soot.

"What-" Iris breathed, "the hell- was that?"

"I have no idea," Cisco said.

"Aren't you the one that brought it here?" Joe asked.

"Yeah but I didn't exactly welcome the black cloud of doom!" he exclaimed.

"Okay, well whatever it was basically condemned our speed lab, we need to clear this smoke out of here," Iris told the team, finally able to breath. "Barry, can you make a speed vortex to funnel it out?"

"We would need somewhere to put it first, we can't just funnel it into the halls," Barry told her.

"Plus, this doesn't seem like regular smoke, we should be careful," Caitlin insisted.

"Ok, for now we just need to regroup in the cortex and try and find whatever thing it was that did this," Iris agreed.

About ten minutes later the team met back in the cortex after having taking a few minutes separately to recuperate. Iris also donned a face mask to go and get a smoke sample for Caitlin to check out later. Caitlin wasn't too keen in the idea, she had a pretty good idea of what she would find but she agrees anyway. She ran a simple analysis and revealed to the team the basic results.

"All I can figure out is that this is a very dense coal smoke," Caitlin revealed.

"That explains the smell," Cisco commented.

"Okay, why is our speed lab full of coal smoke?" Iris asked.

"We have to find that thing Cisco let out," Joe said.

"Can we stop playing the blame game please?" Cisco asked.

"Woah, guys, we need to focus here," Barry said before Joe could respond.

"Whatever that thing is it doesn't seem friendly, we have to find it fast," Iris said. "Cisco, check the cameras. Caitlin, see if there is anything else that smoke can tell us. Barry and Ralph, go check and see if anything in the speed lab has changed. Dad, see if there have been any reports of similar events to the CCPD. I'll go and check the news and blogosphere and see if there have been any sightings." Everyone nodded and went their separate ways. Caitlin returned to analyzing the black smoke even though she knew there was nothing further she could share without revealing the existence of the Spellcaster Realm. Luckily, she didn't have to pretend to research for long because Barry and Ralph came running back into the cortex. Caitlin wandered out to meet them and Iris looked up from her computer.

"The smoke is starting to fade away," Ralph said, Barry nodded in agreement.

"So it it starting to drift out of the room?" Iris asked.

"No, fading, as in disappearing before our very eyes." Ralph corrected.

"I can't explain it," Barry interjected. "It shouldn't be possible, smoke doesn't just disappear like that. It also shouldn't just hang in the air like it was earlier. I have never seen anything like this."

"It's got to be a meta of some sort," Iris said.

"That's what I was thinking," Barry agreed.

"What kind of meta would do this?" Caitlin asked, trying to lead them in that direction. She hoped that they would find an explanation on their own. She wasn't sure how well the explanation of what a dark phoenix is would go over. The rest of the team present in the room looked like they were deep in thought when a screech echoed through the halls. Then they heard a scream coming in their direction. Cisco flew into the room breathing heavily.

"Guys! I found it!" he called.

"I thought you were checking the cameras!" Iris exclaimed.

"I thought one of them was down, turns out it was just blacked out by the smoke," he told them. As soon as he finished talking the phoenix flew into the room. Cisco and Ralph jumped back and Iris took up a protective stance, Barry backed away slowly, cursing under his breath. For her part, Caitlin just stared at the figure. She wasn't sure what her mortal friends were thinking as they looked at it. It looked pretty much like any old big black bird only this one had smoke coming off of it in waves as it flew. It looked kind of like a giant raven in some aspects only Caitlin knew it was much more than that. Especially when you realized that the bird actually had no body. The part that appeared to be the solid shape was actually densely packed black smoke that would shift from time to time which was the only proof that the form wasn't solid.

"Okay, that's not natural," Iris said.

"What do we do?" Ralph asked quietly, as if he was afraid to spook it. Caitlin didn't blame him. The bird was deadly. At the moment the dark phoenix was just waiting in place in front of them, watching them. Then it let out another screech and started flying around the room.

"I think it's going to drop another smoke bomb!" Cisco called.

"We can't let it escape!" Barry responded as everyone scrambled around the room. Cisco thrust a hand forward and opened a breach right in front of the bird who swerved to avoid it and changed course straight for Cisco. Luckily, this time when he opened the breach the bird flew right in.

"Where did you send it?" Caitlin asked.

"The particle accelerator," he responded. "I don't know how long it will stay there but at least we have some time.

"I'll call my dad and tell him he won't find anything," Iris said and walked out of the room.

"So, is the demon bird going to kill us?" Ralph asked once she left.

"It's not going to kill us Ralph," Barry said confidently. "We just have to figure out how to fight it." Caitlin's wand was burning a hole in her pants. Not literally, though that has happened before.

"Where did this thing even come from?" Iris asked as she re entered the room. "What Earth has this kind of thing?"

"Maybe none of them," Cisco said. Everyone looked at him. "I haven't heard of anything like this before and I know a good bit about other Earth's now, what I don't know a lot about are pocket dimensions."

"So, you think this thing came from a pocket dimension?" Barry asked curiously.

"I think it's possible," Cisco responded.

"Hu. Never thought of that before," Barry said, looking deep in thought.

"Thought about what?" Iris asked confused.

"I mean the idea that there are other worlds in pocket dimensions." he explained. "Devoe's lair was just one type but if Cisco is right than not only are there other Earths and other universes but there are other universes and world within the main ones with things that we couldn't even imagine."

"Wait, I'm sorry, other Earth's?" Ralph asked. "As in other dimensions?" Everyone nodded.

"Is this news to you? You've met people from other Earths before like Harry and Gypsy," Caitlin asked. "And you knew about pocket dimensions already."  
"Yeah, I guess I didn't think about it all that much," he responded.

"Wait a second, if we are right and this thing came from a pocket dimension then that means that Cisco successfully opened a breach to one," Iris said.

"Yeah, but I was trying to open a breach to a blank one that I had control over," he said confused. "How did I manage to open a breach to the specific one that the demon bird came from?"

"I have no idea," Barry said.

"Me either," Caitlin added. She was telling the truth this time. Until right now she hadn't even realized that the Spellcaster Realm was in a pocket dimension, she assumed it was in some magical bubble somewhere but the fact that science could explain its existence was mind boggling.

"I had to have had something that drew me to open a breach to the particular location," Cisco said.

"Well, maybe not, Barry accidentally ran to Kara's world for the first time accidentally and that was pretty random," Iris said. "Plus, the original connection to Earth two wasn't exactly planned."

"Even still," Cisco said. "It's odd."

"What's odd?" Joe asked, appearing in the doorway.

"We think this thing came from the pocket dimension that Cisco breached to," Iris told her dad.

"Can you send it back there?" he asked.

"We can try," Caitlin added.

"I don't know, opening it was an accident in the first place," Cisco told them. "Even if I could manage to open a portal to a pocket dimension again there is no guarantee that it is the same one, or if it is, something worse could come out."

"Well, it's either send it back or figure out how to kill a bird made out of smoke," Iris said.

"Well, we could try and electrocute it," Caitlin said. "I know this smoke doesn't seem to be acting like anything normal but electricity would normally help to remove some of the hazards from smoke."

"How can we electrocute it if it doesn't really have a shape," Cisco asked.

"Well, if Barry moves fast enough we could hit it while it is still in bird form so that it would be solid enough to be effected," she replied. "I don't know if it would kill it even then but it might weaken it."

"I think it's worth a shot," Iris said. Barry agreed.

Caitlin hoped that it would work but she had her reservations. Mostly because she knew for a fact that electricity would not kill the bird. She knew that you could kill one temporarily but once it returned to life and reformed it would continue it's attacked with a vengeance. There are spells that transform the dark phoenix to one of fire and therefore making it a pure and gentle creature by nature but those spells were far above her skill level. Their best chance was to try and weaken and capture it so Caitlin could send it home in secret but she couldn't tell them that, they just wanted it gone here, now and before it harmed anyone. She didn't blame them, they were running on borrowed time until that thing came back and a quick plan was all they had time for.

"We have to try and hope it can," Iris said.

"So are we doing this?' Ralph asked. "Because I'm already going to have nightmares about birds, I don't need to worry about being attacked again." Then it came again, the screech. "Oh no," Ralph added.

"Here we go," Iris said.

"Everyone fan out, give Barry room," Joe said. Everyone scattered. Caitlin hid under the desk, watching. Hoping.

"Alright, let's do this," Barry said as the phoenix flew into the room, making a grand circle. Barry started to run and wind up his lightening.

"Come on, come on," Caitlin said under her breath. She had her hand on her wand just in case but hoped she wouldn't have to use it. The bird was clearly thrown off by Barry and flew up backwards upon seeing his movement. When the lightning flew at him it tried to dive away but was hit head on, it made a cry of pain and began to fall to the ground. The lightning colliding with the bird sent it flying backwards and of balance. At the same time it lit the creature on fire. It now looked halfway between a dark and regular phoenix as it was lighting up in patches. Unfortunately for the bird, it wasn't used to being on fire and it's black smoke was turning white where the fire caught causing it to sink lower to the ground. She knew that it was because dark phoenixes were built to run off of the dark coal smoke because they were often associated with dark magic and the white smoke tended to be connected to phoenixes of light magic. The good and bad in the bird were fighting with one another and zapping its power.

Realizing this, Caitlin took a chance. She dashed past the bird into the hallway as her friends called after her. She made it to the closet and threw open the door to retrieve the vacuum. She then used the vacuum tube to point in the direction of the bird, plugged it in and turned it on. Boy did she hope this worked. Barry came flying out of the room followed shortly by Iris as the bird began to squeak. It tried to fly away but parts of the bird began flying towards the vacuum. The fire began to extinguish as it did so and she worried that it would regain its strength too quickly.

"It's working!" Iris called. When the bird finally disappeared into the vacuum she didn't stop it from running, she was afraid it would escape if the forcing holding it there were removed.

"You kind of forgot to mention that part of the plan," Barry told her. The rest of the team had filed into the hallway at this point.

"I didn't mention it before because I thought that it wouldn't work with the bird at full strength but once Barry got a hit on it I knew it wouldn't let us try that twice so I just kind of hoped that it was weak enough," Caitlin explained. It was the truth too, she had no idea if it would even work. She had never tried using mortal means to defeat magical creatures. She hadn't even knows if it was possible.

"Okay, well, what are we going to do with it now?" Joe asked.

"Try to figure out how to send it home," Iris said.

"I still don't know what led me to that particular dimension," Cisco said.

"We need to figure it out quickly, before that thing figures out how to break out of there," Barry told them. Everyone agreed and Cisco and Iris went to review the security footage again to see if there was anything that could tell them who it was that dimension that Cisco connected to. Joe went back to check on Cecile and then Ralph decided that he was going to try and learn more about alternate dimensions. Barry hung back with Caitlin to watch over the bird in the vacuum.

"That was some pretty quick thinking Cait," he said, eyeing her.

"Yeah, well, I figured a smoke bird was still smoke," she said.

"I guess it's a good thing you were brave enough to try it," he said. "You were the only one who never seemed to back down once that thing arrived."

"Well, we have dealt with a lot these past few years, I guess not much phases me anymore," she responded, trying to explain away her response.

"Yeah, but this was certainly a new one," he chuckled.

"It's not every day you have to fight a dark phoenix with a vacuum cleaner?" she laughed in response. As she spoke Barry's head perked up towards her, his eyes questioning.

"Dark phoenix?" he asked. Caitlin froze. This was not good.


	5. Chapter 4

Cisco

October 14th, 2018

"Do you really think this is over?" Cisco asked as he and Iris walked back towards the computers in the cortex.

"Hopefully, as long as nothing else comes out of that pocket dimension," Iris said, pulling up the security program. "Which is why we need to figure out why it was that dimension you connected to specifically." The live feed of the speed lab jumped on the screen, the smoke was nearly gone at this point. Iris scaled back the time to two hours ago, when Cisco first tried to open the breach. When she hit play they watched the scene playing out in front of them. Cisco was taking stance, Caitlin was steadying him, everyone else was watching from the side. Nothing seemed different. They watched Cisco's different trials and errors while listening to the audio for any irregularities. When they got to the final try they paid extra attention. They saw the breach blast open and the light that filled the room. That's where things started to seem different.

"Does that look strange to you?" Iris asked. Cisco nodded.

"That's more than a light," he said. "We didn't stumble back, we were pushed back."

"Didn't you say that could happen?" she questioned.

"Yeah, but I expected the breaches to disagree with each other and dissipate into a minor explosion," he clarified. "This light is coming from inside the pocket dimension."

"What kind of light has force?" Iris asked.

"Technically speaking it all does in minuscule amounts but nothing like that, at least not

visible light," Cisco said.

"What if it's not the light then?" Iris responded. "The light could be combined with

something else and it is just brighter."  
"Nothing that I can tell," he told her. "I thought it was the force of the explosion, that's

what it felt like. At the very least it felt like some kind of wind."

"Wind wouldn't be visible though," Iris noted.

"It also wouldn't be powerful enough in that concentration," he realized.

"Well, assuming it is the light, maybe physics just works different in that pocket

dimension," Iris said.

"The other Earths could potentially have different laws of physics but that hasn't shown to be the case."Cisco said. "Even if it was, this pocket dimension is connected to Earth 1. It should follow the same properties. Even if it was more advanced than us this shouldn't be possible. It's not even theoretical. Whatever it is, it's not regular light and we clearly don't have it here. Otherwise it would react the same way in day to day life."

"Well, I don't think we are going to figure it out from looking at this video," Iris said. "Do you think it has something to do with why that dimension was opened?"  
"I mean, maybe," he responded. "If there was some trace of that, whatever it is, on this Earth it could have established a connection. But I would have to be connected to it myself and like I said, it doesn't seem to exist here."

"That doesn't mean that it doesn't," Iris told him. "But why would it be connected you? Could it have to do with your powers?"

"If it's a dark matter thing then maybe," he noted. "That would be the only thing that would have a similar effect that this light does only dark matter isn't visible."

"Maybe this is just a different form of dark matter," Iris said.

"So like….light dark matter?" he asked. "Even if it was this light dark matter was very concentrated."

"And regular dark matter isn't?" Iris asked.

"Not usually," he wondered. "But also not never."

"So the black matter in your system is why this specific dimension opened for you naturally," Iris said. "That's a start. You could probably reopen it easily."

"Okay, say I do that, how do we get the bird back in?" he asked. Iris thought for a second and was about to respond but Ralph stumbled into the room.

"What is it Ralph?" Iris asked.

"I did some research on alternate dimensions," he said. "If they are basically different timelines from our own, doesn't that mean that different timelines are possible in our dimension. Like, time travel! Do you think that's possible?" Cisco just stared at him. He assumed that Iris's face matched his fairly closely.

"So...yes then," he said. "I'm out of the loop. Got it." Iris sighed and was about to say something before she was cut off by another screech.

"What?" Cisco exclaimed. Barry and Caitlin came running into the room a second later.

"How did it get out?" Iris asked.

"Ralph tripped over the cord on the way in here," Caitlin said.

"It unplugged and turned off," Barry added. "There was nothing holding it back." Cisco and Iris cast a glare at Ralph.

"Whoops," he said. Then the bird flew into the room. This time it started to dive bomb them, all they could do was dive out of the way. Black smoke began to fill the room again.

"Quick, we have to leave before the room fills completely again!" Caitlin called. "We would be held captive!"

"Don't have to tell me twice," Ralph called. He tried to run but Barry beat him to it by speeding everyone out of the room and back to the now smoke free speed lab.

"What are we going to do now?" Cisco asked.

"The zap and vacuum idea won't work again," Caitlin said. "This thing is too smart for that."  
"What makes you think that?" Cisco asked. "It's literally a cloud of smoke."

"Look, I agree with Cait," Barry said, glancing at her. "We need a new plan. We have to send this thing back where it came from."

"Did you guys figure out how Cisco opened it?" Ralph asked.

"We think it has something to do with the black matter in his system," Iris said.

"I can probably just breach it open the same way as before," Cisco told them.

"I can steady you again," Caitlin offered.

"That's great but how do we get the bird in?" Ralph asked. "Let it chase us?"  
"Yes," Barry said.

"I was kidding," Ralph said.

"I'm not," Barry countered. "If I anger it is will chase me and I can run into the breach."

"Wait, so you want to run head first into an unknown pocket dimension with no idea what is on the other side or how to get back?" Iris asked. Barry nodded. "No. Not happening."

"Well, I can do it," Cisco said. "I can open a breach to get back at least, plus, the breach clearly stays open without me for some reason."

"No, it's too dangerous," Barry said.

"And it's not for you?" he responded.

"That's different," Barry said, glancing at Caitlin.

"Why?" Cisco asked confused.

"No one is running into the pocket dimension!" Iris yelled before Barry could respond.

"We need to do something!" Cisco fired back.

"Not this," Iris told him. "Maybe we can get it to chase something else and then throw it in."

"You mean like make it chase a dummy?" Caitlin asked.

"Or a robot," Ralph added.

"Do we have anything like that on hand?" Barry asked.

"I'm sure I can whip something up," Caitlin said.

"Really, that quickly?" Barry asked.

"If you think you can then do it," Iris said. Caitlin nodded and then tore out of the room.

"What about the rest of us?" Ralph asked.

"Be prepared to fight it off, we have to make it look like whatever dummy Caitlin finds is the one doing the attacking," Iris told them.

"What if I disguise myself as whatever it is and do the attacking and then we swap it out when the bird can't see and throw it in?" Ralph asked.

"That could work," Iris told him.

"I'm all for it," Cisco said. They looked towards Barry. He nodded.

"Okay," Iris said. "So when Caitlin gets back-"

"I found something," Caitlin said, rushing back into the room, cutting Iris off. She was dragging the suit display mannequins that was wearing the early version of Ralph's costume. It had been colored to match Ralph's skin tone.

"How did you color it that fast?" Iris asked.

"I've been working on something," she responded but Cisco noticed the pause between been and working. "This should work well enough, they don't have great eyesight."

"They?" Iris noted.

"What about eyesight?" Ralph asked.

"Where are you getting your information?" Cisco asked.

"Do we really have time for this?" Barry asked. "That thing could come back at any moment? We can grill Caitlin after, believe me." Barry's comment was punctuated by yet another screech.

"Okay, move, now," Iris said, dragging the mannequin into the speed lab. Barry quickly helped her and they stored it off to the side. Hopefully hidden away. Then Caitlin handed Ralph his old suit, well, one version of it. Ralph quickly slipped it on over his clothes.

"Places!" Iris called. Cisco ran to the center of the room, Caitlin ready to steady him once again. Barry and Iris stood closer to the mannequin to obscure it and Ralph stood slightly off to the side to draw the bird's smoke. Cisco immediately tried to open the breach again but realized that he would have to do a double breach again. He became more determined and began rapid firing just as the bird flew into the room.

"Now Cisco!" Caitlin called behind him. With one last blast his vibes collided and the breach blew open once again. Like last time, the team was pushed backwards and stumbled to the ground. They were disoriented when the bird flew into the room but not incapacitated.

"Here birdie birdie birdie!" Ralph called, getting up quickly and waving his arms. Cisco and Caitlin tried to roll out of eyesight. The bird was stunned for a moment upon entering the room but clearly not by Ralph. It was however, Ralph's yelling that brought it back to reality because it began to chase the metahuman.

"Guys!" Ralph yelled. "Can we switch now?"

"Hurry!" Iris called. Ralph dove behind her and Barry. Iris was armed with a blaster just in case and blew off a shot to deter the bird. Then Barry and Ralph heaved the mannequin and threw it past Iris.

"Come and get me!" Ralph called as it flew. The bird turned and dove towards the mannequin but it stopped short of the closing breach.

"They didn't throw it hard enough," Cisco said under his breath. His mind was moving a mile a minute.

"Cisco, don't!" Caitlin whispered harshly, like she knew what he was thinking.

"I have to," he said back and launched forwards. He vaguely registered Caitlin scrambling up behind him.

"Hey bird!" he called. "Come and get me!" Then he sent a blast at the thing as it sat upon the fake Ralph. It had no effect though and flew through the bird. He heard Iris scream and then a crash. He didn't have time to register that fact because the bird screeched again and ran towards Cisco. He took off running towards the portal.

"Don't!" he heard someone call. He half expected Barry to speed him out of the way so he wasn't surprised when someone grabbed his arm and threw him back. What did surprise him was the fact that the person who pulled him back was Caitlin. The same Caitlin who was now standing directly in between the portal and the bird.

"I'm sorry," he swore he heard her say, then she reached back and grabbed something from the back of her pants and thrust it forwards. "Obgeen!" She yelled. Then there was another bright light and Caitlin spun back towards the breach with her arm still outstretched. She was holding a wooden stick of some sort with sparkles shooting from of it. Then, like it was pulled by a rope, the bird was thrust into the breach just as it closed. It was gone.


	6. Chapter 5

Caitlin

October 14th, 2018

Caitlin didn't move for a second. She just stood frozen in one position, breathing heavily. No one else said anything either. No one dared. When she finally regained the ability to move Caitlin slowly lowered her wand and turned to face the team. In her peripheral vision she could see Cisco watching her with wide eyes, Ralph's jaw hung open, Iris looked a weird mix of confused and angry, Barry looked like he was trying to figure her out.

"What the hell?!" Ralph explained, breaking the silence.

"Caitlin? What was that?" Cisco asked.

"How did you do that?" Iris said, overlapping with Cisco's comment.

"It's kind of a long story," she admitted.

"Oh is it now?" Cisco asked.

"Care to share?" Iris asked. Caitlin sighed.

"Before I do you have to promise me that you will never tell another living soul," she begged them.

"Why?" Ralph asked. Iris hit him.

"You guys just have to trust me," she said. "If this gets out it could be bad for all of us."

"Caitlin, just tell us," Iris told her.

"Okay," she said. Taking a breath. "The truth is...I'm a spellcaster."

"I'm sorry, a what?" Ralph asked.

"A spellcaster," she said. "We're like wizards but real."

"But wizards aren't real," Ralph said. "That's just nerd stuff."

"Maybe not but magic is real," Barry said. "Just ask Oliver."

"I'm with Barry on this one," Iris said. "Magic is definitely real and evidently spellcasters are too."

"So wait," Cisco said, "that thing was some kind of Harry Potter nightmare monster right?"

"Sort of," she said. "They are called dark phoenixes."

"That explains a lot," Barry said. Iris looked at him questioningly. "Just, something she said earlier."

"I'm guessing that's also why you knew about their eyesight?" Cisco asked.

"That thing was sentient?" Ralph asked.

"Okay, my brain is processing a lot right now," Cisco said, holding his head.

"Why didn't you mention this before?" Iris asked.

"Like I said, if this gets out, things could go bad," she responded. "There are rules that have to be followed and consequences if they are broken."

"What kind of consequences?" Iris asked.

"Jail time, magic removal, memory wiping and in some cases death," she told her. "I didn't know what would happen, just that it wouldn't be good."

"And that's the only reason you didn't tell us?" Barry asked like he didn't believe her.

"Not entirely," she admitted. "I was also scared. I have been hiding my powers since I was eight years old. It's all I know how to do. I was taught to hide who I was or bad things would happen."

"Taught by who?" Barry asked.

"My mom," she admitted. "She is a spellcaster too. And my dad. That's why I am."

"If you're a spellcaster then why are you a scientist?" Ralph asked.

"Because once I left the Spellcaster Realm I couldn't continue to use my powers regularly, I had to learn the new rules," she informed him.

"Spellcaster Realm?" Cisco asked.

"That pocket dimension that the dark phoenix came from," she said. "That's where I lived until I was eight years old."

"You're from a pocket dimension?" Cisco asked in awe.

"Yeah," she said. "But I didn't know that until today. I always thought it was just some magical elseworld, not a scientifically explained pocket dimension."

"Glad we could clear that up for you," Ralph sarcasted.

"You didn't do anything," Iris said.

"That must be why you could open that breach," Barry said absentmindedly.

"What was that?" Iris asked her husband.

"Cisco. We didn't know why that specific breached connected to that specific pocket dimension but it's because of Caitlin," he clarified. "She was bracing him so they were in contact. He opened a breach to her home dimension."

"That actually makes sense," Iris said. "And I'll bet that light was magic. That's why it affected us like that."

"What light?" Ralph asked.

"Not important," Cisco said. "The point is, a lot more makes sense now."

"Glad to hear it," Caitlin said. "Now we just need to make sure no member of the royal family or the royal guard ever finds out that I told mortals about magic."

"Mortals?" Ralph asked. "That's actually a thing."

"Yes Ralph, it actually is," Caitlin retorted.

"What was that part about the royal guard?" Iris asked.

"The Spellcaster Realm is a monarchy," Caitlin clarified. "Currently ruled over by the house of Liam head King Alexander. His daughter Natalie is princess and believed to be next in line for the throne. They are the most ancient and powerful of all spellcaster families."

"So they can just, do whatever they want?" Ralph asked.

"They are fair rulers but they do also meet with a council of members of the other ancient families and high ranking members of the community," she continued. "They can do a lot but not everything. However, the royal guard makes them more powerful, they are basically the police force, some guards main job is to protect the royal family, others are to enforce laws. Basically like CCPD only with magic and kings."

"So, is this royal family the reason you have been lying to us?" Iris asked. "The reason you couldn't tell us about your powers."

"Technically," she admitted. "They aren't really friendly with the mortal world. No one knows why but there are rumors. They tend to believe you are either with them or against them no matter if that it true or not. That's why I have only been back once. I'm effectively banished even if I'm not officially."

"And that seems fine to you?" Cisco asked.

"I'm sure the king has his reasons," Caitlin said. "They don't interact with the mortal world in positive or negative ways. It's just the way it has always been and it has worked so far. It's way above my knowledge to weigh in."

"I think the king doesn't know what he's talking about," Barry said dryly.

"Please don't stage an uprising," Iris told him jokingly.

"No promises," Barry grumbled. Iris gave him a weird look before turning back to Caitlin.

"So you said that you've only been back once, why go back at all?" Ralph asked.

"I needed a new wand, I outgrew my trainer," she told him, holding her wand up. "I was finally a high enough level."

"Level?" Iris asked.

"It's a scale used to measure your skill and power level," Caitlin clarified. "I'm a level three, my mom is a level seven and my dad was a level ten. The highest level is a level ten master caster but that one usually requires strong power as well as skill so it is extremely difficult to reach. That used to be my goal."

"What changed?" Barry asked.

"Life," she said. "It's hard to study magic with limited resources in a place where magic isn't aloud. So, I'm a level three."

"Why didn't your dad teach you?" Iris asked. "I know he died when you were young but he must have been a good teacher until then."

"He was but he was also a castle guard, that took up a lot of his time. It's also how he died. During the riots," she said. "He was killed protecting the princess." No one said anything for a moment.

"I'm so sorry Cait," Barry said sadly.

"It was a long time ago," she said. "But it was my father's death that made my mom want to leave the realm and I went with her. She couldn't be around magic. It reminded her of him."

"Well, that does explain a few things," Cisco said.

"Okay, okay," Ralph said. "Caitlin, I'm sorry about your dad and your semi-tragic backstory. I really am but things just got really deep and in depth explanationy and I really just want to see you use some magic!"

"I can't," Caitlin sighed.

"Clearly you can," Cisco said. "Or was that whole story just for kicks?"

"I mean I can use magic but I shouldn't," she specified. "Using magic in the presence of

mortals can set off all sorts of alarm bells. As a level three using it once won't do much but if I continue to cast spells in front of you guys someone will notice."

"What? Are there like people who just sit around monitoring magic usage in the human

world and jump at the chance to make an arrest?" Ralph snorted. When Caitlin didn't say anything Ralph piped back up. "Wait, seriously?" She nodded.

"Wow," Cisco said. "What even is the Spellcaster Realm?"

"Insane," Caitlin said. "But can we just stop talking about this for now? I just need to get my wand back in my safe and rest and hope my whole world doesn't come crashing down."

"Fair enough, and we promise, we won't tell anyone," Iris said. "Right?"

"We promise," the rest of the team chimed in.

"Perfect, let's call it a night," Iris said and stepped up to give Caitlin a hug. "We're always on your side." Then she turned and walked out, Barry shot Caitlin a quick smile and then followed Iris out. Ralph headed out shortly after and Cisco gave her a hug.

"You want me to breach you home our are you going to magic it?" he asked laughing.

"I'll take the breach, thanks," she said, smiling. He turned and opened one up and dragged her through. If only they had stuck around a second longer. If they had they would have seen the telltale blue light that would be just the beginning of a whole new breed of problems.


	7. Chapter 6

Cisco

October 16th, 2018

The team didn't really meet up again until two days later when yet another meta decided to make Central City their playground. It was just a simple take down, nothing to write home about. Even still, it was a momentous occasion since it was the first meta fought with full knowledge of Caitlin's heritage. At one point, Cisco and Caitlin were working on something without the rest of the team and he couldn't help himself but blurt out questions. Caitlin didn't seem to mind.

"What is the craziest spell you have ever cast?" he asked.

"I accidentally turned my dog pink with polka dots during my tenth birthday party," she said. "Not crazy in itself but we had a lot of explaining to do that day. Luckily, the other kids didn't seem to realize how unlikely it was that our dog liked to play paintball." Cisco laughed.

"What were you trying to do?" he asked.

"I don't know," she said chuckling. "It has been lost to time."

"Still, that doesn't seem so bad," he replied.

"It could have been worse," she said. "I was only level one at the time, I didn't have much control but I could also only cast simple spells. Level fives are where the problem is. They are on the cusp of learning more powerful spells but still don't have much skill. I haven't even made it that far though so I think we will be fine."

"What about your mom?" he asked. "You said she was a level seven."

"My mom is talented," she said. "She was a healer in the realm, here she is just a different kind of healer."

"Talented family," he snorted. Then something hit him. Family.

"Serious question," he said. Caitlin looked up from what she was doing to focus on him.

"What?" she asked.

"Did Ronnie know?" he asked after a moment. Caitlin didn't answer for a moment, like she was thinking.

"Ronnie knew," she said. "I told him when we got engaged. Normally, I would have waited until we got married but level three's don't usually set off alarm bells if it is one person and no spells. Plus, I thought it was worth the risk. Magic is an important part of who I am, I never wanted to hide it or distance myself from it. That's just the way it had to be." Cisco nodded.

"Yeah, I get that," he said. Caitlin smiled sadly before returning to her work.

"Uh, I'm gonna go check in with the rest of the team," Cisco said awkwardly. Caitlin nodded absentmindedly. He backed into the Cortex where Iris was scouring the news sites for info. "Hey," he said.

"Hey," she said, looking up. "You and Cait done?"

"No, not yet," he said. Iris gave a questioning glance. "There's not much more for me to do so I was asking questions about spellcasters and I needed a breather."

"Well, you're welcome to join me, the more the merrier," she said. Not much more headway was made that day. At least, not about spellcasters. They caught the meta but everyone else skirted awkwardly around Caitlin and Cisco just avoided her altogether. Everyone may have been okay with Caitlin's recent revelations but that doesn't mean they handled it well. The next few weeks were more of the same, sometimes someone would dare to ask a question or two but mostly they just ignored it. Cisco didn't know how Caitlin was handling it, she had been talking less and she seemed more tense than usual. Everyone was on edge.

November 9th, 2018

"Okay, who did it?" Cisco asked, marching into the cortex. He was pissed off.

"Did what?" Ralph asked. Caitlin popped her head out of the med lab and Barry and Iris exchanged glances.

"My equipment," he explained. "Someone's been messing with it. None of it is working."

"Are you sure there wasn't just a power outage or something?" Ralph asked.

"If that's what happened it would be more than my equipment that wouldn't be working," he explained. That's when the lights went out.

"What's going on?" came a call from the hall. The lights flickered back on when the generator kicked in and the team could see Cecile and Joe standing in the doorway. Cecile was holding baby Jenna. "We were going to stop by to say hi, what is going on with the lights?" Cecile asked.

"We're not sure yet, it's not any kind of power outage I've ever seen," Iris said. "In my experience, computers don't usually stay on when the rest of the world goes dark."

"Should we leave you guys to your mystery solving?" Joe asked. Jenna was squirming in Cecile's arms.

"I'm sure it will be fine for now," Iris said. "The generator is on, it was probably a fluke."

"I'll take a look around just in case," Cisco said. "You guys stay here and hang out." Then he turned to return to his lab, the area where he first noticed something was wrong. The generator had turned some of his equipment back on but not everything was directly connected to the STAR Labs power. There were battery powered items too that definitely were not working. It didn't make any sense, they didn't all die at once. He had a battery power tester, he popped them in to see if something was up. Every single battery showed no charge at all. That was very unlikely.

After that he ran to check the fuse box. He expected to find it blown but no such luck. The switches near the top were still active but most of the lower switches had gone dark. Again, very unlikely. Actually, it didn't even seem possible. He jogged back to the cortex to update everyone on the situation.

"Hey, did you find out the problem?" Iris asked upon seeing him.

"Not exactly," he said. "Every battery powered machine I have is dead and half of the circuit breaker is dark on the main circuit. The top half is fine. The rest of my equipment is working fine. It just doesn't make sense."

"Wait, even the battery powered stuff?" Barry asked. "That doesn't sound probable."

"Yeah, it sounds like the power just up and left everything," Ralph joked.

"Or maybe something took it," Caitlin piped up. She was white as a sheet and her eyes were big.

"What's wrong?" Cecile asked, hugging Jenna close.

"Joe, Cecile," Caitlin said, "take Jenna and leave right now." Cecile got up and started to walk towards the exit when a growl echoed through the halls. Jenna started to cry.

"What was that?" Joe asked and Cecile tried to quiet the baby. He wasn't sure which was was safe so he stood still for the time being.

"Gremlins," she said.

"Gremlins?" Cisco asked. "As in don't feed them after midnight?"

"Not really but just as terrifying," she said. "Are we sure that the dark phoenix was the only thing to come through the breach."

"Clearly you aren't," Iris told her.

"If this really is a gremlin then we are in it trouble," she said. "They are little power suckers. They feed on electricity and magic. Most of them in the realm are held in captivity or are somewhere hidden away but every once in awhile they break out and cause havoc. Magic doesn't work on them because the eat it. Also, spellcasters."

"Are you saying that that thing is what has been sucking our power?" Ralph asked. "And that it wants to eat you?"

"Yeah, but you guys don't have magic, it should be fine," she explained. "It doesn't eat mortals...but it does get bigger the more it was so that might be a problem."

"Wait, hold up." Joe said. "Magic?"

"I'll explain later." Caitlin told him but she clearly winced as she did. "Just get the baby and get out. Based on the places that have been hit, the path to the exit should be clear. Run." They nodded and took off.

"How do we catch this thing?" Iris asked.

"We have to starve it," she said. "Put it in a place with no power and then let it shrink again. After that all it takes is locking it in a wooden box and I can send it back."

"Where are we going to find a place without power?" Ralph asked.

"With a few modifications we should be able to make the time vault shut down completely," she said. "We can trigger the door from the outside. Then Cisco can just breach me out."

"Wait, why would you be in there?" Iris asked.

"That thing is going to go after sources of power, electronics wont hold it off forever," she explained. "Even low level magic is more tempting than the small amount of electricity in electronics. It will chase me and I can lead it in."

"Have you even met one of these things before?" Barry asked.

"Not in person but I have read loads about them," she said. "They terrify the spellcasters."

"And so you decide to use yourself an bait?" Cisco asked.

"Yeah, but we are a team, I trust you guys," she said. "I just hope you know that you can still trust me." She was obviously referring to the tension from the past few weeks.

"We do," Iris said after exchanging a few looks. "Now, let's take this thing down." In response, Caitlin smiled and took off down the hall.

"Oh, we're staring now," Ralph said as the rest of the team followed her.

"Where are we going?" Barry asked. "I can't get there first if I don't know where we are going?"

"The generator," she said from the front. "This thing wants power so that is where it will probably go." The generator was in the basement.

"How do you plan to get up here fast enough for that thing not to eat you?" Ralph asked when they arrived at the basement descent. She whipped out her wand from behind her.

"It will be fine as long as all of you close your eyes," she said. "I think."

"Real confidence inspiring," Cisco said.

"It's either that or I and all technology becomes gremlin food," she retorted.

"I vote magic," Ralph said. Then Caitlin started climbing down. Everyone looked at each other and then covered and closed their eyes. Cisco assumed anyway, he couldn't see but that had been the plan. He heard growls. Felt the floor move and then a voice.

"Incoming!" Caitlin called, the Doppler effect taking its toll. "All clear!" She called a moment later. Cisco opened his eyes and started running. Barry spend most of them along, leaving Cisco behind with Caitlin but moving the rest of the team to their positions. All it really took for a power down of the time vault was a voice command from Barry and the removal of the power source, they could fix it easily after and it was a quick process which is why he was supposed to be doing it as they ran. They rounded the corner a minute later and saw their friends waiting outside, except for Barry. Caitlin clearly didn't notice because she looked behind her to see the creature, which actually looked like a giant rat to Cisco, before heading into the vault. Cisco dove to the side at the taller-than-he-was rat followed her inside. Ralph and Iris thrust their hands at the wall and the door closed.

"Where's Barry?" Cisco asked.

"Inside, the power went out but he never came back out," Iris said.

"He should be fine, Caitlin said that thing didn't attack mortals," he told her.

When Cisco heard a scream he remembered that he had one more step. He immediately opened a breach. Caitlin and Barry fell out. Barry landing on top of Caitlin. He knew it was Caitlin who screamed so when he saw blood on her he was worried but not surprised. Then he realized there wasn't a scratch on her.

"Barry are you okay?" Caitlin asked. Cisco looked over to see his friend in a torn up shirt with scratches and blood.

"What happened?" he asked.

"Caitlin!" Iris exclaimed. "I thought you said that thing didn't attack mortals."

"It doesn't! I don't know what happened!" She exclaimed. "We have to get him to the med lab to clean his wounds but he should be fine.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Iris asked the speedster.

"I'm fine, I've had worse," she said, wincing. They moved him back to the med lab and Caitlin got him all patched up. She told him to rest until the wounds healed but with his powers it shouldn't take long.

"As the Gremlin grows smaller, the power it sucked should return," she said. "Barry will be fine."

"I don't think power works like that," Cisco said.

"It does when a magical creature ate it," she retorted. "Anyway, I think I figured out why it went after Barry instead of me."

"Why?" Iris asked.

"He's the Flash," she said. "I might have low level magic but Barry has more electrical power in him than this entire building thanks to his connection to the speed force. That thing thought that was more appetizing than me."

"Well, at least now we know that but there are still a few things that we don't," Iris said. "Like, where did that thing come from? I'm positive the dark phoenix was the only thing that came through."

"Maybe you can check the security cameras again when they get back up," Caitlin offered. "For now we just have to focus on next steps. Make sure Barry is fine, put the gremlin in a box, send the gremlin home, and figure out how to explain magic to Cecile and Joe without being tracked down by the royal guard."

"So this will be interesting," Ralph said.

"No kidding," Cisco responded. So each of them split off to accomplish one of the next steps. Barry healed fine, the gremlin went home safely and the cameras? Well, the next day Iris finally saw that blue light that they missed before and realized that the gremlin wasn't here by accident. Someone sent it here on purpose. Buy who? And why?


	8. Chapter 7

Caitlin

November 10th, 2018

The day after the gremlin attack, Iris called a meeting at STAR Labs. She said that she found out some important information. The night before Caitlin had been unable to sleep so she was the last to arrive. To be fair, she only had trouble sleeping because she had to out herself as a spellcaster to Joe and Cecile in order to explain the gremlin shenanigans. She could have lied but there was no point in only half the team knowing. Might as well go all in.

"Hey, sorry I'm late," she said, running in.

"Huh, that's usually my line," Barry laughed.

"We've got a problem," Iris said, silencing them.

"What's going on?" Joe asked.

"That gremlin didn't end up here on accident," she told them.

"How is that possible?" Caitlin asked in a panic.

"I reviewed to security footage and I saw another breach open up where the last one closed," she said. "I saw the gremlin come through but I also saw a pair of hands drop in in."

"No one from the Spellcaster Realm would dare touch a gremlin willingly," Caitlin responded.

"They were wearing gloves, I don't know if that actually did anything but I saw what I saw," she said. "Look." Then Iris pulled the security footage on the screen.

"Those are definitely hands," Ralph said.

"Who would do this?" Cecile asked, Jenna squealing in her arms.

"I have no idea," Caitlin said honestly.

"Do you think they were after you Cait?" Cisco asked. "You said it could be dangerous for us to know about you, maybe this is their way of getting rid of you."

"This is not how they would punish me," she told them. "This was something else."

"So was the target humans or spellcasters in our dimension? Iris asked.

"Could be either," Caitlin said. "Gremlins eat electricity and there's enough here for that thing to become bigger than King Kong. On the other hand, any spellcasters here would certainly be targets whether on purpose or not."

"And speedsters apparently," Barry mumbled. Iris swatted him on the back.

"It doesn't matter why they did it, it matter that it happened," Iris said.

"Yeah, and what are they going to do next?" Ralph asked.

"Hopefully nothing," Joe said.

"Don't hold your breath," Caitlin groaned. "If someone is getting involved with the mortal world for any reason, they mean business."

"Perfect, so not only do we have to fight metahumans, we now have magical creatures to deal with," Ralph said.

"Okay wait," Cecile said. "You guys told us that the first time the breach to the Spellcaster Realm opened it was because Cisco opened it in the speed lab. So why did it open here a second time?"

"Someone had to have opened a breach here deliberately," Iris said.

"Not necessarily," Barry said. "I don't know a ton about magic but what if whatever spell or potion or whatever they used to open a breach back here it just latched onto the last location a breach was open."

"Then why wouldn't that happen every time a breach opens?" Ralph asked. "Do breaches always open in the same location as the last one opened in our world until one opens in a different location?"

"I don't think it was automatic, it was deliberate but not necessarily on purpose," Caitlin said. The team gave her confused looks. "I think that whoever sent the gremlin through was ready. They knew that a breach had connected our worlds at this location recently so they knew people would be here. At the very least they probably assumed a spellcaster was here in some capacity."

"So the target WAS spellcasters," Iris said. "But why?"

"They probably think that I'm a traitor for leaving," she said. "This isn't the castle guard though, I can tell you that much."

"Why do you think it was you specifically?" Barry asked.

"Well, I'm the only spellcaster here but beyond that I know that people branded my mom a traitor after she left when my father died in the line of duty," she said. "They probably recognized my spell signature from when I sent the dark phoenix back."

"Spell signature?" Joe asked.

"Like a magical fingerprint," she said. He nodded.

"Okay, so their goal is to attack the perceived traitors," Iris said. "That puts you in danger Cait.

"And you guys for protecting me," Caitlin said.

"Yeah, well, too bad for us," Barry said, smiling.

"I know you guys are there for me but I would feel better if I taught you some magical protection," she said.

"So we don't have to come up with insanely thrown together plans at the last minute while a creature is attacking us anymore?" Ralph asked. "I'm in."

"What kind of protection?" Cecile asked.

"Well, I can't put absolute protection on you or anything but I can help you learn to dodge spells," she responded.

"That's not helpful against magical creatures though," Ralph said. Caitlin sighed.

"I know but at least it's something," she said. "I'll also bring some of my spell and information books. They have some info on creatures."

"I think that's a good idea," Iris said. "We can't be too careful." Cisco nodded in agreement.

"Okay wait," Ralph said. "So we're just supposed to trust Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them over here, to know what she's doing? She told us that she's a low level spellcaster. Is she even qualified for this?"

"Ralph!" Joe barked.

"No, Ralph's right," Caitlin said. "I'm not qualified for this. If things get too out of hand I will call the royal guard."

"But wouldn't you get in trouble?" Iris asked.

"Maybe, but if I go to them maybe I can get them to go easy on you guys at least," she responded.

"We can handle this on our own," Barry said. "I believe in you Cait."

"Me too," Cisco said.

"We all do," Iris said. "Right?" That last part was directed at Ralph.

"Okay, fine," he said. "Excuse me for questioning the sanity of this situation."

"I don't think any of us even know what sanity is anymore," Joe said.

"Our lives are crazy, what's one more thing?" Iris asked. After that, the team set up a few times a week exclusively for magic training before going back to their regular schedule.

November 24th, 2018

It had been about two weeks since magic classes had started. Caitlin would spend most of the class teaching about the different creatures she found in her books but they weren't all encompassing. She could only do so much. She also would go over magical laws and customs. They would usually wrap things up with how to combat magic as a mortal, which was basically deflect, deflect, deflect. Question and answer would be sprinkled in. Cisco usually asked the most questions. They weren't always on topic but better to know than not know right? It was better than Ralph. She wasn't entirely sure that he was paying attention. Not that he didn't care, he just wasn't a fan of school and said that this felt a lot like it.

"Okay, so, I was thinking that today we could risk some real life spell training," Caitlin told the team.

"You mean like, you cast spells at us and we deflect or dodge?" Iris asked. Caitlin nodded.

"What happened to not wanting the royal guard to find out?" Barry asked.

"I'll use simple spells and I'll only do one each," she told them. "It's not perfect but I don't want your first test to be with a more experienced spellcaster during an actual attack."

"She makes a valid point," Cisco said.

"As long as we actually get to do stuff now," Ralph said. Caitlin pulled her wand out.

"Okay, whose first?" she asked. Cisco raised his hand.

"I'll go!" he said, popping up.

"Alright, center stage then," she said, laughing. They went to the center of the speed lab.

"I'm just going to cast a temporary color spell. Okay? Ready?"

"Ready," Cisco said.

"Cloro K-Pin!" Caitlin yelled, thrusting her wand forwards. Cisco dropped into a duck and roll. The spell shot over his head and hit a practice dummy behind him. The dummy turned bright pink.

"Wait, if that had hit me was I going to look like that?" Cisco asked.

"Just your hair and just for five minutes," Caitlin responded. "But excellent dodge."

"Okay, but Ralph is going next," Cisco said, pointing at the stretchy meta.

"Fine then," Ralph said. "Same spell?" Caitlin nodded.

"Ready?" she asked.

"Bring it," came the response. Once again, Caitlin raised her wand.

"Cloro K-Pin!" she called again. Ralph used his powers in his defense by stretching himself into a circle. The spell went right through him, this time hitting a wall. Unfortunately, magic doesn't always act the way you think it will. Especially with Caitlin's control over it. It's a simple spell but it can still do what it wants sometimes. Which is why it bounced off the wall and slingshoted into Joe who was watching from the side.

"Ooh!" Caitlin gasped upon seeing the detective's hair, facial included, turn bright pink.

Barry and Iris were trying to contain their laughter. Cisco just looked relieved that it didn't hit him.

"Well, at least we know the spell works," Cecile said, trying to comfort Joe.

"You need to work on your dodging dad," Iris said, finally giving in to her giggles.

"How about you go next then see how you'd do," Joe said. "At least you'll know the spell is coming for you."

"Yeah, Cait, you forgot to mention the ricochet possibility," Cisco said.

"Honestly, I thought I would hit most of you," she said. "But it usually doesn't happen with higher level spellcasters unless it is on purpose. It's more of a spell getting out of hand than a tactic."

"Well, lets hope it doesn't happen again because I'm going to dodge your spell," Iris said in teasing cockiness.

"Are you sure we should still be doing this?" Barry asked. "I mean, what if something goes wrong again?"

"Babe, it will be fine," Iris told him. "I can handle a little color."

"Just a few more and we're done for the day," Caitlin said as Iris walked to position.

"Okay, bring it," she said, looking at Caitlin. For the third time Caitlin raised her wand and called out the spell. It blasted from her wand as Iris moved to jump out of the way.

"Weak," Ralph coughed out at the same moment. It made Iris glance in his direction just long enough for the sell to make contact.

"Damn it," Iris said. "How bad is it?" she asked. No one said anything.

"So that hit her right?" Cisco asked.

"I think so, nothing else turned pink," Ralph said. Caitlin stood frozen and very confused.

"Caitlin, what's going on? Did you do the spell right?" Joe asked.

"Yeah, I know I did," Caitlin said. "Same words, same cast pattern, same focus." At this point Iris realized decided to check her hair for herself and realized that it was in fact, not pink.

"Wait, what?" she said. "That hit me right? Why isn't my hair pink?"

"Maybe your powers are just off after the ricochet," Barry suggested.

"I mean, yeah maybe," Caitlin said.

"It was just one spell," Iris tld her. "It could have been a number of things right? Especially with the weirdness that has been going on around here."

"Yeah," she responded. "But I can think of-" She was cut off by the meta alert alarm.

"Well, have to finish this later guys," Iris said. "The city needs us." Barry sped ahead to the cortex and the rest of the team followed. Caitlin left last, still unsure of herself. She stared at her wand for a moment before she left. Maybe she was getting sick? That can affect powers is strange ways. It's been awhile since she had a cold but with Killer Frost gone she had less of a combatant. Hopefully she would be fine when or if another creature shows up. Or worse, another spellcaster.


	9. Chapter 8

Cisco

November 25th, 2018

The day after the pink fiasco, Cisco woke up to a frantic call from Iris. She was almost incoherent as she relayed information to him. At best he got "Spellcaster nonsense" and a lot of swearing. Apparently, she couldn't get a hold of Caitlin so she wanted him to. In the background he heard Ralph yelling with Barry over a lot of….was that squeaking?

"What the fuck are these things?" he heard Ralph call.

"Cisco, gotta go," Iris said. "Get Caitlin. Fast." Then the line went dead and Cisco just stared at the phone for a moment. He tried to dial Caitlin's number but it kept on going directly to voicemail. He thought she's fixed that. In frustration he opened a breach and stepped into her apartment.

"Caitlin!" he called. No answer. He made his way through the apartment, calling her name again. He heard a thump in her bedroom. "I'm coming in!" he called and then opened the door. Caitlin had been sitting in the corner but the moment he had opened the door she popped up, wand ready. "Whoa! Don't shoot!" he called, jumping to the side and holding his hand up.

"Cisco, you startled me," she said.

"Why aren't you answering your phone?" he asked. "We've got a major magical situation...I think."

"You think?" she asked.

"Iris wasn't exactly clear on the details and it was very loud on their end," he said. Is there a magical creature that squeaks? A lot?" She thought for a moment.

"Gerblies," she said.

"I don't remember learning about those, what are they?" he asked.

"Basically little gerbil rats with cheeks like Pikachu minus the electricity," she said. "They also multiply every time you hit them with anything. You'd need to majorly lower the temperature to slow their movements. The original has to stretch it's resources to maintain so many bodies and it takes a lot of energy to do that. Cold lowers the amount of energy and make is to they can't maintain multiples for long. It weaken their bond."

"Perfect," he said. "Let's go." She looked hesitant. "What?" he asked.

"I mean, gerblies are pretty harmless," she said. "You don't really need me. Just use the thermostat and don't left them sit on your face."

"You're not going to help?" he asked. She shook her head. He opened his mouth to respond but she stopped him.

"I'm not coming Cisco," she said. "Don't waste time on me. Go help the team." After a moment he relented and opened another breach, casting her a last glance as he stepped through. Then the calm of the apartment melted into utter chaos.

"What the hell?" he said upon entering the cortex. Caitlin was spot on with the description. The gerblies were running everywhere, they were bouncing like fleas and multiplying just as fast. He could barely take a step.

"Cisco! Where's Caitlin?" Iris called.

"Not coming!" he replied. "But don't worry, I know what to do."

"What?" Ralph asked.

"We need to make it really cold in here, we have to get to the thermostat," he said.

"Can't we access the temp from the computers?" Iris asked. Barry was already looking for the controls.

"Yeah," he said. "Barry's got it," he yelled, looking over his friend's shoulder.

"How cold do we have to make it?" Barry asked.

"Yeah, and can we survive it?" Ralph asked.

"Caitlin didn't say, she just said really cold," he told them.

"Okay then," Barry said, blasting the AC. "I hope this works."

"Why didn't she come?" Iris asked as soon as it was turned on.

"I don't know and I didn't have time to ask," he said. "I'll figure it out later."

"Guys, I don't think it's working," Ralph said.

"We just turned down the temp," Barry said. "GIve it a second."

"Is it just me or are there more of these things around or feet?" Ralph asked.

"Not just you," Iris said.

"They must be trying to hold onto our body heat," Cisco said.

"Uh, guys," Barry said. Three heads turned back to their friend at the monitor in time to see gerblies climbing up his legs.

"Body heat that Barry give off a lot of," Cisco added.

"Are these things dangerous?" Iris asked.

"I don't think so, Caitlin just said not to let them sit on your face," he told them.

"Probably because they can cause suffocation!" Barry said as they climbed higher. He was craning his neck away from them.

"Cisco, get her here now!" Iris ordered, shaking gerblies off her feet. One flew off and hit the ground. Splitting into two. He nodded and breach back to her apartment. Luckily, no gerblies followed him.

"Caitlin!" he called, pounding on her bedroom door. "The gerblies are revolting! They are going to suffocate Barry and then the rest of us!" The door flew open.

"What?" she asked. "The cold should have worked!"

"They went after our body heat!" she exclaimed.

"The temp must not have been enough to weaken the bond," she said.

"It's on full blast," he told her. "We either need a cold gun or a spell and we don't have a cold gun anymore." Caitlin looked pained. "Seriously! What's wrong with you?"  
"I'm not any good at this Cisco!" she exclaimed. "Yesterday my spell ricocheted and another didn't even work on Iris! I was worried that I was coming down with a cold but that's not the case I checked. I can't blame my magical flaws on mortal means. It's just me."

"Caitlin, it was one off day of one spell," he said. "You were fine every other time you used a spell, when it counted you were amazing."

"Yeah but if I can't even make a simple color spell work properly, what could happen if I used a more dangerous spell?" she asked. "If I mess up the cold spell I could end up freezing someone solid! I'm not exactly Killer Frost right now, I don't know what I'm doing."

"Look, Caitlin, this whole thing is my fault," he said. "I opened the stupid breach to the Spellcaster Realm and forced you to reveal yourself and that's not fair to you but it is the way it is. I feel awful for putting all of this pressure on you and being a screw up yet again but goddammit Caitlin Snow I believe in you. I don't care that you're only a level three or that you've been living in the mortal world for twenty years. I trust you with my life. So, please, save our friends. Only you can."

"Cisco, this isn't your fault. You were just trying to help the team. You didn't know that you would open a breach to the Spellcaster Realm. Plus, this could have happened anyway. IT may have even happened somewhere where there wasn't a spellcaster an people to take care of it," she told him. "But you're right. This is my world. They both are. I can't start doubting myself now."

"So you ready?" he asked. Caitlin nodded and grabbed her wand off the bed.

"Let's do this," she told him as they jumped back into the chaos at STAR Labs. Iris was standing on a chair, Ralph was beating the gerblies back with a bat (even though that was actually making things worse) while Barry kept on trying to pull as many off of himself as he could.

"Caitlin! Do something!" Iris called.

"Eezref!" she called, thrusting her wand forwards. The temperature in the room instantly dropped. Cisco started shivering, he saw Iris do the same. The gerblies began to slow their movements and eventually began to fall from the people they clung to. Then, one by one, the gerblies disappeared until there was only one left. It tried to run away but Caitlin caught it, tossed it up in the air, aimed her wand and yelled "runert!" The gerblie disappeared mid air.

"What was that spell?" Iris asked.

"I sent it back home," Caitlin responded. "I'm sorry I was late."

"It's okay, you're here now," Iris told her.

"Yeah, see, you didn't need absolute power to get rid of them, you know what you're

doing," Cisco told her.

"Thanks Cisco," she told him and they shared a side hug.

"Did we miss something?" Ralph asked.

"I was a little unsure of myself after my screw ups yesterday but I Cisco helped set me

straight," she said.

"Caitlin, yesterday wasn't a big deal," Barry said. "No one is perfect and you really came through for us today."

"As long as my spells keep working," she said. She acted like she was joking but Cisco wasn't so sure that she was entirely. Clearly Iris wasn't either.

"Cait, it was one spell," she said. "Everyone here had missteps as they learned to control their powers, they still do. Just because one spell doesn't work one time doesn't mean that it's going to be a pattern. Today you were great, all you had to do was believe on yourself. The only thing stopping you is you."

"Actually, I think the thing stopping her is me," a voice said. Five heads whipped around.

"Who are you?" Caitlin asked, wand raised.

"Cassandra Belda," she said. "I understand you've been harassing my gerblie."

"You're gerblie tried to kill us," Iris said.

"Mason wouldn't have multiplied if he hadn't been hit first," she said. "That's the problem with you mortals, always acting without thinking."

"Like you're so perfect," Barry said glowering.

"Why are you here?" Caitlin asked. "Are you the one who has been sending all of those creatures to attack me?" Cassandra laughed.

"I am one of the people responsible for the creatures, yes, but they were not meant for you," she said. "Granted, you were an unexpected kink in the chain but I'm here to take care of that." She raised her wand.

"Dilesh!" Caitlin called right as Cassandra shouted "Rinda!"

Cassandra's spell collided with a flat, circular shape of light extending from Caitlin's wand.

"Get back!" Caitlin called through gritted teeth. "She's a higher level than me." She looked like she was barely holding on. Just as it looked like Caitlin was about to give out, Barry, apparently recovered from shock, sped forwards and tackled the enemy spellcaster to the ground.

"Run," he said to the team as Cassandra started to get up. Barry moved to run the others to safety but Cassandra kicked his feet out from under his and he went down.

"Ite!" Caitlin called, aimind for Cassandra.

"Lkcob!" the other caster responded, Caitlin's spell fizzled out half way. Cassandra then followed up with "Falkyb!" When the spell collided with Caitlin she flew back and hit the wall. When she fell she was in too much pain to stand. At this point, Barry tried to get up but she casted another spell and he fell down again. Every time he tried to stand the same thing happened, like she zapped away his coordination. Cisco tried to blast her but she simply blocked the attack, it wasn't completely ineffective but she effectively braced herself against it and Cisco didn't have the energy to keep it up.

"I'll take care of the little level three in a minute," Cassandra said. "But I think the over enthusiastic mortal deserves some attention first. Bye bye." She pointed her wand at Barry who was still falling over repeatedly. He tried to scramble away by moving along the floor while Caitlin tried to reach her wand which had flown from her hand.

"Pohroan!" she called. Cisco gasped, recognizing the spell from Caitlin's lessons. This would not end well. Clearly Iris recognized it too because she was already moving.

"No!" she shouted and threw herself in front of her husband. The spell collided with her moments before Barry would have been hit. The silence was deafening.


	10. Chapter 9

Caitlin

November 25th, 2018

It was as if time froze when the spell hit Iris. I knew that spell. I knew what it could do even if I couldn't cast it myself. The moment it hits you you get blasted back with a powerful concentrated force that can be enough to fracture your bones. It's not necessarily always deadly but it can be used to kill. It's was basically the spell that blew her against the wall times ten. She couldn't grab her wand in time. By the time she had it raised the spell had already made contact with Iris. She could feel the whole room brace themselves. She could see Iris flying across the room, she had a plan, maybe if she could get there in time she could stall the damage. Something. But she couldn't. There was nothing she could do to help her friend. Nothing she had to do really. Because even though she saw the image of Iris being blasted to her doom in her mind, her eyes saw a very different situation.

What she actually saw, what actually happened, was the spell dissipating the moment it hit a braced-for-impact Iris. It didn't work. Iris's position didn't change. The whole room stood in their braced positions, as if they expected a delay. The first to move was Cassandra. Caitlin watched as the smile fell off her face. Caitlin lowered her wand in shock. Cisco and Ralph seemed to realize that Iris hadn't been affected and Barry was just laying on the ground, not moving, watching Iris with a fiercely protective gaze.

"That's impossible!" Cassandra said. It was at this point that Iris opened her eyes and the brace stance dropped. She checked herself over as if she couldn't believe it. Caitlin for sure couldn't. It hadn't worked. The spell hadn't worked. Just like her color spell the other day. "How did you do that?" Cassandra asked, rushing forwards and aiming her wand at Iris's neck.

"After what just happened do you really think another spell is going to fix anything?" Ralph asked. Cassandra turned her gaze to look at the man and Caitlin took her chance to strike.

"Elesp!" she called raising her wand once again. The caught off guard spell caster was hit by the spell and began to waver, stumbling away from Iris before falling to the ground in sleep. "Get her wand," she called. "She can't do anything without it." Iris, since she was right there Caitlin assumed, bent down and pulled the wand from the sleeping girls hands.

"We should put her in the cortex right?" Cisco asked. Caitlin nodded. Barry was staying on the ground, like he was unsure if he could move.

"She's disarmed and unconscious Barry," she said. "You should be able to stand now." As she said this, she was working through the pain to stand back up. She watched Barry tentatively stand up and upon doing so, speeding Cassandra to, she assumed, the pipeline. Iris was still standing, kind of frozen, holding Cassandra's wand.

"Iris?" Cisco asked, gently grabbing the wand from her. "You okay?"

"Yeah," she said softly. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just a little shook up."

"Why the hell didn't that kill you?" Caitlin asked when she finally regained her footing and approached the other female.

"Sorry to disappoint you Cait," Iris said.

"I know sorry," she said. "I mean, I'm glad you're okay but there is no reason for you to be okay. She has got to be at least a level seven and you just got hit head on with what is basically a bone crushing spell and you didn't even move a millimeter." It was at this point that Barry sped back in the room and Joe and Cecile appeared from the hallway.

"Ralph texted us, what happened?" Cecile asked, holding the baby. Caitlin shot him a look.

"So what, we're not supposed to tell them that Iris accidentally escaped death?" he asked.

"What?" Joe asked.

"Dad, I'm fine," she said.

"But she shouldn't be according to Caitlin," she said.

"Don't ever do that again," Barry said. "You scared me half to death, I will not have you die to save me. You saw how well your dying turned out last time for me. Savitar much?"

"Okay, wait, wait, wait, wait, what happened?" Cecile asked.

"An evil spellcaster showed up, beat the crap out of us and then tried to kill Barry with some bone crushing spell but Iris jumped in the way of it last second and escaped without a scratch on her," Ralph said. "Now the girl is in the cortex and we have her wand." He pointed to Cisco on that last part.

"You would have died Iris," Caitlin said, seriously.

"Maybe she just didn't cast the spell right," Cisco said.

"There's no way, that spell could be cast by anyone level five or higher," she said. "For a level five it's possible but her skills were at least level seven. I would say it was potentially possible if the same thing hadn't happened yesterday with my color spell. There is a very very minute chance that it was just a coincidence both times. Something is stopping magic from affecting you Iris. At this point, the team started walking back into thee cortex, they had ended up in the hallway during the fight. Barry had his arm around Iris who pressed into him but looked lost in thought and worried.

"Caitlin, can you think of anything that would cause Iris to be immune to magic?" Joe asked.

"Either she is a very powerful, by birth or training, spellcaster who is either deliberately or subconsciously deflecting magic or there is a very powerful protection spell or charm on her," she said.

"Well, I'm definitely not a spellcaster, didn't you say it had to be genetic?" she asked.

"Most of the time but it is possible for a child of two mortal parents to have a magical child if at any point in their family's history there was someone of magical blood," she said. "It's rare but it happens, usually they have as much capacity for great power as anyone else, sometimes even more, but usually aren't born with a power like that. Even if you were born a spellcaster you would have had to have constant training to be able to block magic like you do."

"Okay, so what you are saying is that someone put a protection spell on Iris?" Cisco asked.

"I mean, maybe," she said. "It's possible that there is another avenue that I don't know about but that seems the most likely. The only problem is that I know for a fact that I didn't cast the spell on her and even if I did it wouldn't be that powerful. A charmed item would help strengthen it but it is hard to find something that can properly be bonded to a protection spell."

"Is it possible that she was just born immune to magic?" Cecile asked. "Like, maybe instead of being born with powers she was just born to deflect them?"

"I've never heard of that but I have been away for a while, maybe it's possible," Caitlin said. "Iris, would it be okay for me to test another spell on you? Just to see?" She glanced at Barry for a second before nodding.

"Yeah,yeah sure," she said. "Anything to figure this out." Iris took center stage and Iris took her stance.

"Okay, Iris, I'm going to tell you exactly the spell that I am going to cast and what it is going to do," she said. "I don't want you to fight it, I want you to just let it happen, okay?"

"Okay, got it," she said.

"I'm going to cast dirab," Caitlin told her. "It is a spell used to braid your hair. You ready?" Iris nodded and took a deep breath. She closed her eyes. Then Caitlin cast the spell. This time, the spell did work. Her hair was braided not a second later.

"It worked," Caitlin said under her breath.

"Maybe it was just a fluke with them not working on her?" Ralph asked.

"No, let me try something," Caitlin said. "This time I'm going to cast ginst. It imitates a bee sting. There should be a red mark where it hits and it will only sting for a few minutes."

"Why do we want to do this?" Iris asked. "The last one didn't work."

"I just want to test a theory," she told her. "I don't want you to resist the spell Iris. It will be over in a few minutes if it works and if it doesn't work then you have nothing to worry about."

"Okay, I'll be fine. No resistance," she said.

"You sure?" Caitlin asked.

"A little sting doesn't scare me, I can handle it," she replied. "Come at me."

"Ginst!" Caitlin called, raising her wand. She and Iris maintained eye contact the whole time. Sharking trust. When the spell made contact Iris didn't even flinch. Iris looked down and checked her left arm (the area where the spell hit) for red marks.

"Did you feel the sting?" Caitlin asked. Iris shook her head.

"So, good spells work, potentially dangerous ones don't," Cisco said.

"Yeah, but the color spell didn't work either and that was harmless," Barry said.

"That still could have been me," Caitlin said. "I'm not perfect."  
"What if it didn't work because Iris didn't want it to," Ralph pondered. "She was trying to dodge the spell, she didn't want it to hit her, she imagined it as a threat so that's what it became and therefore didn't work."

"That actually makes some kind of sense," Joe said.

"Yeah, but it sounds more like an impossibly powerful protection spell like nothing I've ever encountered before," Caitlin said. "I have no idea what is going on with you Iris but I think we just got another hand up in whatever kind of crazy spellcaster shit is going on."

"What? No," Barry said. "We're not going to use Iris to get the upper hand battling spellcasters like Cassandra."

"Isn't that my choice?" Iris asked.

"It is but we don't know what this is, we don't know how it works, do you really want to take the chance of this going wrong?" he asked. "It is your choice okay, I'm not saying that it's not your choice but please, just think about this before you do anything crazy."

"Okay, fine, I'll think about it," she said.

"And I can run some more tests and check to see if it's anything in her genetic makeup," she said.

"So this is a thing now? Got it," Joe said. Cecile laughed and patted him on the back.

"Our lives did used to be semi normal right?" Cisco asked.

"At least no one is secretly heir to a long lost kingdom or anything," Ralph said laughing.

"Yeah, we've just about hit every movie trope at this point, might as well embrace it," Cisco said.

"If anyone was royalty I think it would be Iris," Caitlin retorted.

"Does that make me King?" Joe asked laughing.

"Stop it all of you," Cecile said. "Didn't someone mention an evil spellcaster in the pipeline?"

"Yeah, we should check on her," Caitlin said. "Cisco, care to help?"

"Sure," he said. "I want to figure out this girl is so vibe resistant anyway."

"Let's do this," Caitlin said and set off with her friend to interrogate the baddie in the pipeline. Little did they know, today was the iceberg, in a few days, it would be the titanic.


	11. Chapter 10

Cisco

November 25th, 2018

"Let me out of here," Cassandra said upon seeing Cisco and Caitlin enter the room.

"Yeah, can't do that," Cisco responded. Cassandra glared at him. Cisco backed up a step. She was slightly terrifying. Sue him.

"You said before that I wasn't your target so who is?" Caitlin asked. Cassandra didn't respond and crossed her arms instead. "Cassandra!"

"You can try and bully me all you want Caity, it wont work," she growled.

"You sure? She can be very persuasive," Cisco added. He was obviously referring to Killer Frost even though she was missing at the moment. That didn't make it any less true.

"I'm not scared of a level three traitor," she said.

"I'm no traitor," Caitlin said.

"You turned your back on the Realm," she snapped. "You and your mother decided to run away when things got too tough. You don't deserve magic." There was venom in her voice.

"You say I was unexpected but you seem to know an awful lot about me," Caitlin fired back. Cisco felt the ice from behind her. Killer Frost may be gone but Caitlin could still sting like a snowstorm.

"I know of you," she responded. "Not many people do what you did. I could never pretend to be something that I'm not. Not like you do. You're not mortal. Why are you protecting them?"

"Do I need to protect them?" Caitlin asked. "Are they your targets?" Cisco felt like he should be contributing to the conversation but Caitlin was in full on bad ass mode.

"Maybe," Cassandra responded. "Whether they are are targets or not, they will get hurt but it's going to take more than you to protect them."

"She has friends," Cisco chimed in.

"Magic friends?" Cassandra asked him. "Mortals can only do so much against us. Your weaponry is impressive but they don't have a proper understanding of spellcasters and magic. By the time you learn it will be too late." Cisco swallowed. Caitlin didn't say anything. She just stared Cassandra down with a steely look. Then she turned and walked out. Cisco followed her out, slightly terrified of his friend.

"The targets are mortals not spellcasters," Caitlin said upon storming into the cortex.

"She told you that?" Ralph asked.

"If she did I didn't hear it," Cisco said. "She was saying mortals would be hurt in pursuit of whatever they were doing but she never said that we were the target."

"Read between the lines. She was talking as if it was only her who was acting but her threats matched a much larger power," Caitlin said. "There have to be more spellcasters working with her. Plus, she directly said that by the time mortals learned how to properly combat magic it would be too late. If their target was just something on this Earth, or was a spellcaster, it wouldn't matter how mortals combatted magic. The only way that would matter would be in war."

"So, Cassandra and a team of ragtag spellcasters want to destroy the mortal world?" Iris asked.

"I don't know if they are ragtag and I don't know if destroy is the right word but there is definitely something bigger going on here," Caitlin responded.

"Great, more people trying to kill us," Ralph grumbled.

"We've got to figure out how to stop this," Cisco added.

"How? Run head first into the spellcaster realm?" Barry asked. "We have to wait for them to come to us if we even want to stand a chance. At least here we have to home court advantage."

"I agree with that," Cisco told him.

"We need to come up with a plan," Iris ordered.

"Yeah, but first we need to get more intel," Caitlin said.

"How do we do that?" Ralph asked. "I can take a crack at Cassandra."

"I was thinking that I could take a trip to the Spellcaster Realm," Caitlin asked. Alarm bells went off in Cisco's head.

"You can't do that!" he exclaimed. "You said it could be dangerous for you to go back. Plus, they obviously know that you left. Even Cassandra called you a traitor."

"She only knew because my father was in the royal guard, they probably thought that I could be powerful and specifically researched me," Caitlin assured. Cisco wasn't entirely sure but she had a point. "Plus, my mom was very public and proper with our exit, most of the time people just leave to avoid ridicule. The fact that my mom left the way she did could definitely be seen as back turning. In my mom's case it probably was but not in mine."

"So?" Barry asked. "They know about you, others might too. You can't go back there Caitlin. Even if you did how would you plan on tracking down and getting intel on Cassandra's death to mortals group?" Caitlin didn't respond.

"You don't have a plan do you?" Cisco asked.

"No, but I have to do something," she finally said, frustrated.

"Yeah but not this," Iris said. "Eventually someone will realize Cassandra is missing and they will strike again. How they react will tell us something about them. Plus, we have to be ready for it. We won't be without our spellcaster."

"Okay, fine," Caitlin said. "I won't go. Yet. That's as good as you're going to get." She added that last part after a series of looks.

"Okay, so what do we think they are going to do next?" Iris asked.

"They know about Caitlin now so they are going to take her into account with their attacks," Barry said. "We assumed they were testing the creatures out. Figuring out how they interacted with the human world. Now they are going to choose creatures with Caitlin in mind. One's she might have a harder time fighting."

"So, a creature focused on spellcasters and not mortals," Cisco said.

"Yeah, but the gremlin was certainly bad for spellcasters and they still sent that," Ralph said.

"Yeah but the potential for human devastation was just as present," Caitlin realized. "Barry is right. The next creatures are going to have me in mind."

"Is there any other creature that you can think of that can sense magic?" Iris asked. "I don't remember you telling us about one."

"Not magic specifically but I know something that will chase down anything it gets a whiff of," she revealed after a moment of thought.

"What is it?" Ralph asked.

"A haunter," she said.

"The Pokemon?" Cisco asked, confused.

"Same name, different everything else," she responded. There was a hint of a smile on her face.

"Okay, what is a haunter?" Iris asked.

"How much do you guys know about Greek mythology?" Caitlin questioned.

"Just what Percy Jackson has taught me," Iris said.

"Okay, well do any of you know what hell hounds are?" Caitlin furthered.

"Those disappearing dogs from hell?" Ralph asked.

"Exactly," Caitlin responded.

"See also, Supernatural and Hellboy," Cisco muttered.

"Right, well a haunter is basically that. It can appear and disappear at will unless a spell traps it in either state. It is also basically a magical bloodhound to the extreme," she exclaimed.

"Wait, why is it called a haunter and not a houndoom?" Cisco asked. "That's just a misnomer right there. Houndooms are literally based on hell hounds!" His mind was being pulled away.

"Cisco, spellcasters didn't name the Pokemon, I don't know what to tell you," Caitlin told him.

"Hey, guys, how sure are we that this haunter is what is coming next?" Iris asked.

"I mean, it could be something else but haunters are pretty easy to get their hands on, they aren't vicious unless they are trained to be, they are basically dogs with a kick," she said. "If they got one trained to track and kill then it could do some damage to the mortal worlds but especially to whatever scent they got a hold of."

"And if that scent was yours?" Barry asked.

"Then I just have to hope I can get the spell right to lock it in its visible state and knock it out," she said.

"Knock it out? Like, with a bat?" Cisco asked.

"Or a chair," she responded. "Maybe a ball. Anything that can be thrown or swung hard enough to take down a big dog."

"So Caitlin offends the crazy girl and now we have to deal with Kujo?" Ralph exclaimed.

"Not necessarily," Barry said but even he looked unsure.

"Let's just plan for the dog," Iris said. "If it is something else then we will figure it out. We always do."

"So we should stock up on baseball bats?" Ralph asked. Cisco couldn't tell if he was serious.

"I'm going to study up on that spell, the better I know it, the better I can cast it," Caitlin said before once again leaving the room.

"So this is crazy right?" Ralph asked, being annoyingly audible.

"It's...certainly something," Iris admitted. "I was just getting used to killer metas and evil speedsters."

"I just hope we're right about the dog, the odds of our guess being right are slim," Barry told them.

"Yeah, but dude, Caitlin knows how spellcasters think because she is one," Cisco responded. "It is at the very least a good approximation." Barry didn't look convinced.

"Well, whatever comes after Caitlin it will probably be susceptible to being hit with a heavy object," Iris interjected. "So let's split up and find something. I'm not sure I trust any of our regular weapons to work on magical creatures." The team agreed and split up. Cisco headed to his lab to get one of his older projects that it little more than a hunk of metal at this point. He found Caitlin sitting at the desk. She was pouring over one of her spell books with her wand next to her on the table. She hadn't noticed him yet, he stood back, watching her. Not in a creepy way, just to remind himself that she was still Caitlin. He may know she has magic now but she's still pouring over books, studying the information to try and save her friends.

Cisco also looked at her wand. He hadn't really had a chance to before. He expected it to be made of wood but it looked like some kind of synthetic polymer interwoven with gold. It certainly looked more modern than he expected. Though, his biggest experience with wands was the Harry Potter universe so he supposed basing all of his expectations on that was not the greatest idea. Suddenly, Caitlin's head shifted. She must have caught a glimpse of him behind her because she spun around, hand grabbing the wand.

"Woah!" Cisco called, launching out of the way. "Calm down Hermione, I was just looking for a hunk of metal." Caitlin released a breath and relaxed.

"Stop doing that!" she exclaimed. "One of these days I'm going to shoot."

"What's that thing made out of anyway?" Cisco asked. "The wand I mean."

"Oh, uh," she said, holding onto the wand with both hands, examining it. "Hard to say, they didn't exactly have it listed out in mortal lingo but I'd describe it as a birch colored poly(methyl methacrylate) with gold strands interwoven."

"So, synthetic power glass fashioned to look like wood?" he repeated, Caitlin nodded. "Only in the Spellcasters Realm does that make sense. That must be some modern wand than yeah?"

"Ish," she responded. "I got it on my sixteenth birthday. That was the last time I was in the realm. To pick it out. I had free passage on my birthday because it was dangerous to not have a proper conduit for my powers and I outgrew my trainer."

"Interesting," he told her. "Any luck on the spell?"

"I know what it is but there is still a lot that can go wrong," she responded. "If I say it wrong, don't do the wand movement correct or simply don't have enough power then it wont work."

"You have enough power," he said. "You just have to focus it." Cisco had no idea if Caitlin had enough power but she definitely wouldn't with her current attitude so he took a shot.

"Yeah," she said. She opened her mouth to say something else when an alarm sounded and Iris's voice came over the intercom.

"Incoming from the Spellcasters Realm!" she called.

"Make that multiple incomings!" Ralph added, taking over the mic. Caitlin and Cisco looked at each other wide eyed.

"Multiple?" he asked. Caitlin nodded and took a deep breath. "You ready?"

"As I'll ever be," she responded. Cisco smiled and grabbed what he came to his lab for, wielding it like a shot put.

"Then here we go," Cisco said. And they ran to their team, ready to face whatever creatures were coming at them. They were ready for anything. But, as they would soon learn, not everything.


	12. Chapter 11

Caitlin

November 25th, 2018

Caitlin ran towards the speed lab, wand out in front of her. She heard Cisco behind her, letting out a war cry. When she entered the room she stopped, taken aback. Ralph was wrestling on the floor with a squillet. Iris was being plastered to the wall by some purple substance. Probably the product of a mixchick attack. Barry was being chased by a zuno, yes chased, and there was a fregar bouncing around the room breaking everything it landed on. She could also hear barking coming from somewhere, probably the haunter she expected in the first place, but she had bigger issues right now than her own problems. She saw Cisco fly by her out of the corner of her eye and watched as he threw a hunk of metal at the fregar. A fregar was basically a giant frog with really powerful hind legs. More similar to a kangaroo in that aspect. It could be deadly and dent steel. It also had a large jumping range. So, when the metal flew towards it, it simply jumped out of the way and out the door. Cisco's projectile hit the wall next to where Iris was trapped.

"Cisco!" she called.

"Sorry!" he responded.

Caitlin decided that getting Iris down was most important at the moment so she bobbed and weaved through the chaos over to the woman on the wall. "Losidevs!" she called, her wand aimed at her target. Whatever substance that had been holding Iris up began to melt into a liquid and she dropped to the floor. She tried to shake some of it off but to little luck.

"At least I'm down," she said. Both women turned at the sound of Cisco yelling and saw him and Ralph both tangled up with the squillet.

"What exactly is that thing?" Iris asked.

"A squillet," she responded. "It it kind of like a squid or an octopus only it can move around on land and it's legs are very flexible and modifiable. It can also change its body from being liquid to being sticky to either trap or get away from prey, usually attacking with a combination of both."

"So how do we fight it?" she asked.

"Petrify it," was the response. "I know the spell but I've never pulled it off properly. I would have to do it with a potion. For now…" Caitlin turned to yell towards Ralph and Cisco "Make yourselves go limp! It will lose its grip on you momentarily, then run like hell!" Almost instantaneously, both men went limp. The squillet seemed to slip for a second and then Ralph pushed it away. He and Cisco took off down the hall. Unfortunately, the creature decided to attack an easier target and switched focus to the women in the corner. It slid across the floor and right into Barry's path who was still running around the room. The squillet flew into the wall as Barry slipped and crashed to the floor.

"Barry!" Iris exclaimed beginning to run towards him but Caitlin pulled her back and cast a shield spell in front of Barry. The zuna ran straight into it and knocked out.

"Those things are fast and fierce but aren't very durable," Caitlin explained. Barry pulled himself up off the floor and the sound of slurping reminded them of the squillet. "Run!" An instant later Caitlin found herself in the cortex. Barry and Iris were standing next to her.

"You said run," Barry shrugged. Ralph and Cisco were already in the room having run from the squillet.

"So that was more than we were expecting," Cisco said.

"Yeah, we have to track and trap these things," Iris added.

"What are they all?" Ralph asked.

"Well, the squillet is what was attacking you and made Barry wipe out, I have a plan to stop it but I need to get some things from my apartment first," Caitlin said.

"I can do that," Cisco said.

"And the other things?" Barry asked.

"The zuno that was chasing you Barry can be taken out with just a hit of anything, I could have sent it back when it hit my shield if it weren't for the squillet, Barry should be able to take it down easily now that there is less to worry about," Caitlin furthered.

"What about that thing that hit me with the goo?" Iris asked.

"A mixchick?" Cisco asked, almost laughing.

"Tiny potion masters," she explained. "They eat things and then those materials mix with their magical saliva to create different outcomes. In this case, it was basically a quick drying plastic."

"So we have one of those running around too?" Ralph grumbled. "Perfect."

"Okay, we should split up," Iris said. "Cisco, you go and get the stuff from Caitlin's apartment and help her make whatever potion she needs. Barry, you focus on taking down the zuno. Ralph, you and I can track down the mixchick and keep and eye on that and the squillet until Caitlin makes her potion."

"Got it," Barry said and sped off. Iris and Ralph took off down the hall and Cisco grabbed hold of Caitlin and breached them to her apartment. Caitlin immediately went towards her safe.

"I know Iris mentioned a potion but what exactly are you looking for?" he asked her.

"My potions kit, my mom was a healer so she used them a lot and she got me a kit when I was a kid, I'm going to use it to make a petrification potion to use on the squillet," she said almost absent minded. When she got the safe open she pulled out the box and motioned for Cisco to take them back to the lab. He did so quickly and Caitlin immediately ran towards the med bay to start her mixing. Luckily, it was a relatively simple potion for her to create and she had all the ingredients. She double checked the combination in her potions book but other than that it was done quickly.

"There, now we just need to let it set for five minutes and then throw it at the squillet," she said.

"Perfect," he responded. Then came the scream. "Oh what now?"

Ralph flew into the room followed by Iris. "The mixchick is behind us and it decided to start melting things," Iris explained.

"You didn't cover how to fight this one," Ralph yelled at Caitlin.

"If it doesn't eat it can't attack, other than that you just have to restrain it, it doesn't have much of a defense," she told him.

"Wait, where is the squillet?" Cisco asked.

"We haven't been able to find it since we left the speed lab," Iris exclaimed. When a belching sound was heard, all parties turned to look at the mixchick currently melting a hole in their floor.

"Runert," Caitlin called, lunging with her wand. The creature disappeared before it even had time to react. "I figure I'd cut out the middle man this time, that thing is low level and has almost no magic protection. When I said not much of a defense I meant it."

"So why did they send it?" Iris asked.

"I think they are just trying to overwhelm me and us," she exclaimed. "It is a lot harder to be productive when you are trying to fight multiple different things at once." A ding went off.

"Potion's done," Cisco said. Caitlin ran to grab it.

"Now, if we can just find that squillet," Caitlin told them. A moment later, Barry sped into the room holding an unconscious zuno.

"So, we can get rid of this right?" he asked. Caitlin once again cast the creature home.

"Two down, one to go," she told them.

"If you mean the squillet I just saw it in Cisco's lab," Barry offered. Caitlin took off running. The rest of the team followed behind her. She stopped them right at the entrance to the room. Currently the creature was just sitting in the middle of the room, probably trying to get a feel for its surroundings. It was blind, it mostly got around through touch. Unfortunately, it could feel vibrations very well so if they started moving it would know.

"What now?" Ralph asked.

"We need to get it to stay still long enough for me to empty this on it," she responded.

"How do we do that?" Barry asked.

"We need to make it turn sticky," Caitlin said.

"I thought it only did that to get a hold of prey," Cisco said.

"Well, then let's give it some," Iris said. "If one of us lets it capture us it will be focused on us and no Caitlin."

"Yeah, but then the potion will effect them too, it's only temporary but not fun," Caitlin stated.

"I'll do it," Ralph said. "I'm stretchy, maybe it will just make me normal for a while."

"Okay fair point but be prepared for that to not be the case," Caitlin told him. He nodded and then jumped into the room. The creature was on him almost instantly Ralph struggled just enough for it to restrain him. Then Caitlin jumped into the room to do her bit. The potion poured over both Ralph and the squillet. The squillet stopped moving and s did Ralph.

"Uh, how do we plan to separate them?" Barry asked.

"We don't," Caitlin said. "I'll cast the spell just on the squillet. Even if it goes wrong, it will effect them both differently. Raloh will probably just end up back at his place." Then, for the third time in a half an hour, she raised her wand and cast the creature home.

"Okay, that was not as bad as I thought it would be," Iris said.

"We should move Ralph somewhere more comfortable," Cisco said. "How long will he be like this?"

"The combination I used is very minimal, five to ten minutes maximum," she clarified. So, they all helped move Ralph back to the cortex for the time being.

"Do you think that this was their big attack?" Iris asked. "I mean, do they think Caitlin is dead or powerless or something?"

"No, they probably realized I sent them all back," Caitlin sighed. "They aren't going to stop, whoever they are."

"They are renegade spellcasters is what they are," Cisco said. There was silence for a moment and then Ralph began to groan and move again.

"Well, that was awful," he exclaimed. Stretching himself out. Way out.\

"Well, at least it's over," Iris relieved.

"Yeah, I'm glad we figured out how fight everything," Ralph said. "Even if we were wrong about the haunter." Caitlin's heart stopped. The haunter. She had heard it earlier but had forgotten about it. It was still here somewhere.

"Caitlin, what is it?" Barry asked. Her eyes got big, then she heard the growl. She could hear the thumping of the paws, so did everyone else. She couldn't tell where it was or where it was going. The entire team moved to protect her. Iris and Ralph jumped in front of her. Ralph took up the rear and Iris grabbed a chair and stood slightly off to the side. But when the haunter got close enough to Caitlin that she could smell its breath, she heard it sniff. Something flew through the air, and she heard the creature whimper, she watched as the dog became visible in ripple for for a moment as the chair made contact. Iris had thrown it, but she had thrown it too far, it only landed on the tail. In what Caitlin assumed was anger, she heard the dog take off instantly in a different direction, towards Iris.

"Iris!" Barry called, but even he was unable to do anything with a creature that he couldn't see, no matter what speed he or it was going. Caitlin tried to grab her wand from her back pocket but it got caught in her jeans. Iris had only just begun to reach when there was a flash, and the life saving spell finally made contact and the dog thudded to the floor.. There was only one problem. Caitlin didn't cast it.


	13. Chapter 12

Cisco

November 25th, 2018

Cisco was used to weird and unexpected things happening but he honestly thought Iris was a goner when the haunter entered the room. Even Barry seemed to freeze. None of them could fight an invisible foe. Except Caitlin he supposed. She was the only one who could do anything. At least that's what he thought. But he saw Caitlin struggle with her wand and he was terrified for a moment. But suddenly, there was a flash of light and there was a woman standing between Iris and the dog. She had short red hair and was wearing what looked like a simple grey page uniform. She also held a slim wand out in front of her. "Conouscisnu!" she yelled. That's when the haunter collapsed. The woman put her wand down and glanced back to Iris. "You okay?" Iris nodded slightly. Cisco heard something small hit the ground and he turned to see Caitlin's wand rolling across the floor while the woman in question backed up, fear in her eyes. That was enough for Cisco to be apprehensive if the stranger and he slowly backed into a battle stance.

"Who are you?" he asked. The woman shifted her line of vision towards Cisco.

"No enemy of yours," she told him. Then her eyes shifted to Caitlin who was looking anywhere except for in the direction of the stranger. A moment later, the woman bent down and picked Caitlin's wand up from where it rested. She looked at it confused for a moment before returning her gaze to the the very confused team.

"You're not going to try and kill us too are you?" Ralph asked. The woman let out a slight chuckle.

"Not quite," she said, the mirth clear in her voice. She suddenly she seemed more approachable but no less intimidating. Then she turned her gaze to her fellow spellcaster. "I think this belongs to you." She held the wand out to Caitlin who eyed it and then her with a guarded expression. "I'm not going to arrest you if that's what you're thinking."

"Arrest her?" Iris asked, finally finding her voice again.

"Right, sorry, I guess I really didn't introduce myself," the woman said. "I'm Austin Witika, level ten master caster and member of the royal guard to the family of Liam."

"So, magical cop, got it," Cisco said.

"What do you mean you're not going to arrest me?" Caitlin asked, stepping forward to gingerly grab her wand.

"I am loyal to my king but that doesn't mean I agree with all of his rules," Austin responded. "You only used magic in self defense and I truest believe your friends can be trusted. I have no reason to believe you to be a threat. But you're lucky, anyone else wouldn't have let you off."

"So what? You just happened to be the only guard to sense her using magic or something?" Ralph asked.

"Sort of," was the response. "I've been on monitor duty since this whole thing started." The room was filled with mostly blank faces.

"Monitor duty is when a guard watches over the equipment capable of sensing magical fingerprints and misuse long distances," Caitlin piped in. "They usually use it to watch the mortal world though it isn't absolute. In the Realm it really only gives a general area for super powerful magic because magic is basically everywhere there. Here there is hardly any."

"Yeah, once I realized that magic was being used here I cast a vision spell to see what was going on," Austin explained.

"And you waited until now to jump in?" Barry asked, his eyes boring into her.

"You guys seemed to have it handled, I figured it was better to stay at my post and not raise suspicion. Plus, I was trying to see if I could find anything about the people Cassandra works with from the monitor station but no luck yet."

"Well, thank you Austin," Caitlin said. "I don't know what would have happened had you not been here."

"Shouldn't you get back to your post?" Barry asked.

"I have a few minutes at least," she responded. "Odds are no one will stop by, I've been doing this guard thing for a while, people trust me to work it alone."

"They clearly shouldn't," Cisco said.

"Yeah, well, they can trust me to act in their best interest, which I am," Austin snarked. "However, I am going to be off monitor duty starting tomorrow, my rotation landed me as a scout. I have a plan to hide Caitlin's magic from the system and my own won't register because I'm a guard but if any of those rebel casters show up and cast spells we might have some trouble."

"Wouldn't that be a good thing?" Iris asked. "Them showing up I mean. They aren't supposed to interfere with our world so wouldn't they get in trouble for it?"

"It's a gray area," Austin replied. "Plus, they would probably realize who Caitlin is and she would get caught in the crosshairs. Her family isn't super popular in the castle guard community. It could work out, but I'm not taking any chances."

"You keep talking like you're working with us," Barry said. "You're not."

"Yes, I am," Austin said. "You guys need me. Caitlin, you are doing great with the powers and knowledge that you have but I have powers, knowledge and connections that you don't. Since I'm going to be on scout duty for a while, I can just slip away, we only have to report if we discover something needing the attention of the guards. By helping you guys I'm basically doing my job. You know, by doing the exact opposite of it and teaming up with mortals to protect mortals but some spellcaster's are technically the enemies here so...I'm counting it."

"You talk a lot," Ralph told her.

"So I've been told," Austin laughed. "Anyway, I have to head back, I'm going to whip up a charm for Caitlin to block her from the grid view. I'll be back tomorrow. Try not to get yourselves killed. And with that Austin was gone..

"Well, that was interesting," Cisco said.

"Are we sure we can trust her?" Ralph asked.

"We can" Barry said quickly. When Cisco age him a weird look he continued. "I mean, she saved Iris's life, I don't think she would do that if her goal was to cause us harm."

"You mean like Wells and Zoloman?" Cisco responded.

"Look, we have been burned before but Caitlin knows the most about this so if she trust's Austin then I'm all in," Iris said. The whole team turned to face the loan caster.

"I think we can trust her," Caitlin said. "She was in the proper uniform, she carried herself the same way as every castle guard I've ever known, she was clearly powerful and she definitely knew what she was talking about. I believe she's a castle guard at least. She is who she says she is. I do think that we can trust her but I'm sure the king thinks that also."

"She's just doing what she thinks is best," Barry said. "I'm sure all of us can relate to that, we work to protect the city but we follow our own rules to some extent. Captain Singh can trust me even if I don't tell him everything. Or anything."

"I say we give her a shot, Barry and I didn't exactly get along before and you knew what I did but you gave me one," Ralph said. "Plus, she's right, we need her."

"So we doing this?" Iris asked, looking at Cisco. He thought it over.

"Yeah, okay, we should give her a shot," Cisco said.

"Agreed," Caitlin chimed in.

"But now onto other business," Iris told them. "I'm sure those casters who are after us will soon realize, if they haven't already, that we took their creatures down. We need to figure out their next move."

"They will probably take some time to plan this next one out," Caitlin said. "Their blitz attacks haven't been working, if they are smart they will probably figure out what will work," Caitlin said. "I just hope they don't realize we have a castle guard helping us. We want the to underestimate us while we figure out what we're working with."

"They will probably come after us themselves next like Cassandra did," Ralph deduced.

"It's likely but probably not yet, I don't think they'd risk sending out a large group together and given what we've proven to be capable of, they aren't just going to send one or two," Caitlin added.

"So we need to use the time that we have to figure out who exactly these people are, we can talk to Austin tomorrow to see if she knows anything that she didn't share," Iris told them. The team nodded. "For now though, it's been a long day. We fought gerblies, trapped Cassandra, learned that magic doesn't affect me, fought a whole bunch of other creatures, I think we've earned a good night's rest. We can fill my dad and Cecile in tomorrow." After that, friends exchanged goodnight's and parted ways. Barry and Iris walked out of the room hand in hand while Caitlin looked to Cisco.

"You breached me here, I don't exactly have a car," she said.

"Say no more," Cisco responded, putting his hand up. Then he opened her a breach and watched her step through. Then he proceeded to do the same for himself. He landed in his apartment a second later and collapsed on his bed. He'd had enough magic for the day. He had no idea how he would deal with Austin tomorrow, he had decided to give her the benefit of the doubt but he didn't have absolute trust. The next few days would be interesting. And they certainly were.


	14. Chapter 13

Caitlin

November 26th, 2018

The next day Caitlin had a relatively normal morning. No frantic calls about creatures attacking her friends. She simply woke up, got ready, ate breakfast and set off for STAR Labs. She didn't use any magic since she wasn't sure if Austin had blocked her powers from being viewable by the monitors yet. So, Caitlin got in her car and drove to STAR Labs. When she arrived the rest of the team was already there, Joe, Cecile and baby Jenna included.

"Hey," she said. "Austin here yet?"

"No, but she didn't exactly give us a specific time," Iris responded.

"She should be here soon," Caitlin informed them. "She probably just finished shifting over to scouting."

"So who exactly is Austin?" Cecile asked. "I know that she's a spellcaster castle guard but that's all we've been told." She motioned between her and Joe.

"That's all any of us know," Cisco told her.

"We're taking a leap of faith here but I think we can trust her," Barry said.

"Well, you guys know more about this magic stuff than we do," Joe said.

"And I know more than them," Austin said as she appeared in the room. "So, you guys ready?"  
"For what?" Ralph asked.

"For a lot of information," Austin said.

"What could you possibly have learned in one night?" Cisco asked.

"Not much, but I did manage to put the blocker on the monitor so Caitlin can use her magic freely," Austin continued. Caitlin sighed in relief. "But as for what information I have, it was stuff that I already knew, I just didn't have time to share it yesterday."

"Which is?" Joe asked.

"These guys you're dealing with, I've dealt with them before," Austin said.

"Okay, that you could have mentioned yesterday," Ralph said.

"It was a long time ago, their operation has changed drastically since then," Austin clarified. "Plus, I wasn't one hundred percent certain that this was actually them. I went through some of my notes and a few of their patterns are the same, just a lot more drastic."

"So who are they?" Barry asked. Austin looked down for a second, avoiding eye contact with anyone.

"Austin?" Caitlin asked. Austin sighed.

"They used to call themselves the Equalists," she finally said. "They were a peaceful group who fought to increase spellcaster interaction with the mortal world. Many members believed that spellcasters could help the mortal world, end wars and such."

"They have clearly abandoned that ideology," Iris grumbled.

"Yeah, what changed?" Ralph asked. Austin took another pause.

"Okay, what is your problem?" Cisco finally asked.

"Cisco!" Caitlin exclaimed.

"No, it's fine," Austin said. "I am acting strange I know. This just isn't an easy story for me to tell."

"Why do I get the feeling you've more than dealt with this group before," Iris challenged.

"I wasn't a part of it if that's what you're insinuating," Austin said softly. "But a good friend of mine was. He joined when he was eighteen. He was living in the mortal world most of the time and he had family there." He voice was shaking as she spoke and her eyes met the floor. Her entire demeanor had changed from last time they spoke to her.

"You still haven't told us what happened to the equalists," Ralph said but he spoke softer than before.

"For the first few years the group was peaceful, they would stage protests and tried to spread their message, there were a few altercations but nothing too extreme," Austin finally added. "Then, there started to be rumors going around that there was a law in the works that cut off all access to the mortal world. When the king finally confirmed the rumors the equalists began to formulate a plan. I knew some of what they were planning to do but none of it was dangerous. At least, it wasn't supposed to be. So I didn't do anything about it, not right away anyway."

"So what did they do?" Cecile asked when Austin stopped talking again. The rest of the room had differing emotions but few others talked. Iris looked like she was in journalist mode, Ralph and Cisco were exchanging glances somewhere in between belief and disbelief. Barry was stone silent and Joe just looked confused.

"Well, even though we have a king, there is a council that had a say in new laws. It is mostly made up of members of other powerful and ancient families. Essentially the lords and ladies of the realm," Austin explained. "So they knew that if they could sway enough of the council they could make sure the law didn't pass. They planned to have different group members track down and sway council member's votes. Like I said, they were a peaceful group. Unfortunately, this specific event agitated them so adrenaline was running high and good decision making was low. One member of the council was Lady Isabella, she had recently taken over the seat from her father after he passed. She was full of new ideas, cutting off access to the mortal world included. No one expected them to succeed but one member decided to try anyway."

"Okay, this is a lot of background," Ralph said. "When are we getting to the magical duals?"

"Ralph, now is really not the time," Caitlin said. "I'd kind of like to learn what happened in my home realm." She was serious too, there was so much that she had missed and Austin was her window to what could have been.

"Sorry but we don't usually do story time," Ralph said. "Normally it's a lot of bouncing ideas off of each other or reading information for ourselves."

"I have it written down but it's not in English," Austin said coldly.

"Milic?" Caitlin asked. Austin nodded.

"Milic?" Iris asked.

"Spellcaster language, it's what I speak in when I cast spells," Caitlin clarified.

"Yeah, well, we can't read that so I think that we should let Austin keep talking," Barry said but he seemed apprehensive. She didn't entirely blame him though. This story seemed hard for Austin to tell and it was certainly hard for her to here. Not because anything bad had happened yet but because it was clearly going that way. She didn't like to imagine that something could go that wrong.

"Okay, go on Austin," Cecile told the redhead.

"The equalist stopped Lady Isabella as she was leaving a press conference, they caught her as she was trying to sneak out the back," Austin continued. "When he stopped her Lady Isabella wasn't happy but agreed to the conversation. After about an hour the conversation got heated and the equalist drew his wand. Lady Isabella pulled hers out as well but the other caster disarmed her. I don't know what happened exactly. The confrontation was not part of the plan but Lady Isabella was not the kind to play nice so I assume something made him snap. Isabella was blasted across the room and she tried to reason with him. No one knows exactly what happened. Lady Isabella didn't know who the equalist was and the equalists themselves hadn't sent anyone specific so there was no way to track him down. Lady Isabella came to the castle later to report the incident. I was in the room when she explained that the equalist had almost killed her. She heard them start to cast a death spell but something made them stop. She was too freaked to comprehend what was happening. Eventually the caster lowered his wand and left."

"Was she okay?" Cecile asked. Austin nodded.

"She was fine, a little shook up, but fine. She was too freaked out to stick to her guns and pulled her support for the new law and it didn't pass," Austin said. "After that the equalists changed. I don't know what their new name became. They became less vocal and drifted into the shadows. I heard through the grapevine that their goals had changed. They believed that spellcasters were superior to mortals, not equal. We caught one member early on when they were still changing how they operated and they wouldn't stop screaming about the power and possibilities of spellcaster magic. After that we never heard of them again. It was assumed that they had disbanded became there were members of the equalists that realized the ways things were going and opted out before things got too bad. We though that the may not have enough members to be a threat. Clearly we were wrong."

"So when that equalist attacked Lady Isabella as got results they decided to follow his lead?" Iris asked.

"It appears so," Austin said.

"Did they ever find him?" Caitlin asked. Austin paused.

"Not that I heard," she responded carefully. "We've never seen anything quite like that though so I don;t think he's a threat anymore. Just a situation that got out of hand."

"Yeah, and doomed the mortal world," Ralph said.

"Yeah, what the hell?" Cisco asked. "I'm not saying that it's one dude's fault but he attacked this girl and then suddenly all of his friends are out for blood. That is one messed up group of people."

"Yeah, we've got to put an end to this group before anyone actually dies," Barry said. "I'm sure whoever this guy was didn't intend for things to go this far and he'll have to live with what's he's done but we can't change the past. Only make sure the future ends differently."

"Yeah, but I think that beating this group is going to be harder than we thought," Joe said. "Rebel and power group are no jokes."

"We've fought Nazis, we can take some magical rebels," Iris said.

"Okay, so how do we fight these guys?" Cisco asked, finally appearing to be fully on board.

"We outsmart them," Austin said. "They are obsessed with power, their goal seems to be to make mortals subservient to spellcasters. They are going to try to recruit those with ancient and powerful magic. But brute force doesn't always win."

"How do we outsmart them?" Iris asked.

"We take the fight to them," Austin said. "We won't learn anything new from here, at least not yet. We need to know more about them so we will know how to fight them."

"So what are you saying?" Joe asked. "You're going to spy on them in the Spellcaster Realm?"

"No, we are," Austin said.

"As in us?" Barry asked.

"Yes, at least some of you, you can trade off, but I can't do this alone and I can't tell the other guards," Austin said. "They might raise the alarm or think that we're crazy and even if that doesn't happen they will definitely find out that there is a whole group of mortals who know about spellcaster magic and Caitlin and I will both be dead or worse."  
"Expelled," Cisco chimed in trying to make light of the situation. Caitlin his him on the back of his head.

"I hate to break it to you but they might also realize that something is up when they discover a bunch of mortals hanging out in the Spellcaster Realm," Iris said. "Isn't that what the monitors are for?"

"Monitors monitor magic, not lack of magic. One single person, or even a small group of people, not using magic won't set off any alarm bells because magic is still everywhere in the realm."

"But won't they recognize Caitlin?" Barry asked.

"I can put a charm on her that makes people believe they've never seen her before," Austin said. "If they already haven't seen her then it won't matter."

"What about us?" Cisco asked. "We've seen her."

"I'm going to mix it with a potion that negates the effects on mortals and anyone whose magical essence I infuse with it so that I won't forget her either," Austin explained. "It should only take me a day or so, I need to gather some ingredients."

"So we're really doing this? Going to the realm?" Ralph asked.

"Wait, what if people realize we don't have magic?" Iris said. "I think the lack of wands will give us away."

"I have some of my older models at home so you can at least have a wand with you," Austin explained. "As for not having magic, most of you are metahumans. At the very least you can openly use your powers. I can teach you spells that would create the same effect as your powers if you really need to. And Iris, magic doesn't affect you unless you want it to so in a way you do have some magic. Caitlin and I can take care of any real magic we need."

"Uhm, hi sorry," Cecile said. "We have a baby."

"Joe, Cecile, you can stay behind, we need someone to watch the city and warn us of anything going wrong," Austin said. "And we can make sure to always have at least one superhero stay in the city, Ralph, Barry and Cisco can tag team."

"You've just got this all figured out don't you?" Joe asked.

"I'm a guard, planning and implementing is ninety five percent of what I do," Austin said. "The other five percent is thinking on my feet and being awesome at magic." She punctuated that last part with a little hair flip, her smile finally returning.

"So when do we leave?" Barry asked.

"In a few days, I want to make sure I get Caitlin's charm ready and teach you as much as I can about the realm before we just jump in," she explained. "Now I really should get back on duty but I'll work on the potion tomorrow and start lessons after that." With that, Austin pulled her wand out and disappeared


	15. Chapter 14

Cisco

December 1st, 2018

It had been almost a week since Austin had decided that Team Flash was flying head first into the Spellcaster Realm. She had been giving Spellcaster Realm 101 lessons in between preparing potions. Cisco had picked out his fake wand from Austin's collection and so had the rest of the team. Caitlin kept on cringing and telling them to be careful. Austin was less vocal but did keep on glancing nervously at Barry who was gripping his own wand of choice so hard Cisco thought it was going to snap in two.

"Hey guys," Austin said wryly, tearing her gaze away from the panicking speedster. "In the hands of a mortal, wands are just sticks."

"But breaking and or losing them is a bad idea," Caitlin countered. "So stop treating them like they are toys." She glared at Ralph who had been flipping his wand like a baton. He grinned sheepishly and pulled his hands behind his back.

"Maybe we should just put them down for now," Barry said, still clutching the wand stiffly.

"Bear, it can't hurt you honey," Iris said placing her hand on his shoulder.

"Yeah, sorry, this is just a lot," Barry said letting out a breath as Iris took the wand from his hand.

"Everyone is going to be fine," Austin said. "Caitlin and I will have your backs, no one will ever know who you are."

"So, when are you guys leaving?" Joe asked, he had been sitting in on the lesson.

"Soon," Austin said. "I just need to make sure that no one here outs themselves before we can take down the, whatever they're called now."

"And how can you be sure that that won't happen?" Joe asked.

"By making sure they know their stuff and stay out of trouble," she responded.

"You clearly don't know us that well," Ralph quipped.

"I know all that I need to," Austin said. "All of you are heroes, this isn't the first tough situation you've been in, it won't be the last. You can do this, even if we have to cheat a little bit."

"How?" Cisco asked.

"What, are we going to drink some magical mind reading potion?" Ralph asked.

"Actually I was thinking we could stay in touch with each other with the comms," Austin said. "Radio waves don't travel across dimensions but they can still connect to each other in the Realm."

"Good idea," Barry said.

"Yeah, having spellcasters in our ears is probably a good idea," Ralph said.

"Yeah, but hopefully Austin's lessons help us enough that we don't need to rely on that exclusively," Iris said.

"I mean I've pretty much covered the basics," she said. "You guys know the layout more or less, if not you can say you're from the outer lands. Plus, culture differences, how to keep your head low and basic laws."

"So are we ready to go?" Barry asked uncertain.

"Not quite," Austin said. "There is nothing really new to learn that I can think of right now but I want to make sure that you guys really know it. We can review for a few more days. By the time I finish my stint as a scout we should be done, plus, I'll be able to use my vacation days then so I don't have to lie to the king."

"You mean anymore than you already are?" Caitlin asked.

"I lie to Captain Singh all the time," Barry said. "If I didn't Team Flash would be a very different outfit."

"Greater good," Cisco said.

"The point is, we are leaving soon so just be ready," Austin said.

"Singh is going to fire me for taking time off again," Barry groaned.

"We're going to switch off right?" Ralph asked. "Why don't you just go when you already have days off. Or you can just ask for a few days off one week."

"Yeah, it's not like you haven't disappeared before," Iris said. "I don't expect this to be long term."

"Fine," Barry grumbled. "But I'm not going first."

"I'll go," Cisco said.

"Me too," Ralph said.

"Just Cisco," Austin said. "Sorry Ralph, but the fewer people the better, at least at first. You can stay behind with Barry, Cecile and Joe until we need to swap off."

"Why does Iris get to go?" Ralph asked. "I mean no offense, you're bad ass, but no fair." Iris chuckled.

"Because for some reason. Magic doesn't affect Iris and that could be useful," Caitlin said. Austin nodded.

"Caitlin's right," Austin agreed. "We need every defense we can get."

"You can go next," Barry said a little too eagerly.

"Sounds like a plan," Iris said, giving Barry the side eye. Suddenly Austin perked up. She pulled her wand out of her back pocket and it was flashing.

"Is someone calling your wand?" Ralph asked.

"More like a magical pager," Austin said. "I have to go but I'll be back later." With that, she flashed out of the room.

"Is it just me or was that very Wizards of Waverly Place?" Cisco asked.

"I hate that show," Caitlin said.

"What? Why?" Ralph asked. Caitlin launched into yet another rant about the inaccuracies of magic in Hollywood. Joe chuckled and told his daughter that he was heading out. She gave him a hug and then turned to talk to her husband. Cisco joined her.

"Dude, what's going on with you?" Cisco asked.

"What are you talking about?" Barry asked.

"Honey, you've been acting strange ever since Austin showed up," Iris said.

"No I haven't," Barry tried to shrug off.

"Dude, you have been doing everything in your power to avoid going to the realm," Cisco said.

"And you looked terrified just holding that wand," Iris said. Barry paused for a moment and then sighed.

"Okay fine," he admitted. "I've been a little freaked out about all this."

"You can literally run faster than the speed of sound and this freaks you out?" Cisco asked.

"That's science," Barry said. "Dark matter giving people superpowers is crazy but at least I can explain it. But magic is...magic."

"Yeah, and you've always believed in the impossible," iris said.

"And I still do," Barry said. "But once I figured out that the lightning was from mine and Thawne's powers things started to make sense again. It was like the world was stable. And now there's magic and nothing makes sense again."

"But we already know people with magic." Iris said. "I mean, we haven't had a ton of direct contact with it until now with Caitlin but the Legends are dealing with it a lot now. Plus, Oliver has used some before with Dhark right?"

"Yeah, and there was the whole Vandal Savage thing," Cisco said. 'That was some hard core magic."

"Yeah," Barry said. "But this is different. It's one thing to see magic. It's another to go to a world that was basically built with it."

"Look, dude, I get it," Cisco said. "This is blowing my mind a little too but you don't have to freak out."  
"Yeah, Caitlin and Austin know what they're doing," Iris said.

"Well, Austin does," Cisco said. "Caitlin is still pretty bad ass though."

"I know," Barry said. "You're right. I just...wish this wasn't happening. You know? Can't we just know what we're dealing with for once?"

"Okay, maybe you need the night off," Iris said. "Just clear your head a little."  
"Yeah dude," Cisco said. "Ralph and I got this. We're not leaving for a few days anyway. You need to wrap your head around it." Iris put her hand on Barry and gave him a puppy dog face. Barry eventually caved.

"Yeah okay fine," Barry said. "Maybe you're right."

"I'm going too, just to make sure you actually relax," Iris said to her husband. She turned to Cisco. "If Austin comes back tell her we are just dealing with some stuff and we'll be back tomorrow." She handed him the wands and then dragged Barry out of the room.

"Where are they going?" Ralph asked, finally noticing the trio.

"Home," Cisco said. "Barry's brain is exploding."

"I figured someone's would eventually," Caitlin admitted. "The Spellcaster Realm is a lot to take in." A flash filled the room.

"Okay, I'm back," Austin said.

"What happened?" Caitlin asked.

"A dual broke out in the North District. I was assigned to a nearby sector, I mean, I wasn't there but I had to respond like I was or there would have been many questions asked that I don't want to answer."

"Good call," Caitlin said.

"Thanks," Austin nodded before looking around. "Where are Barry and Iris?"

"Barry's brain is exploding so they went home," Ralph said. Austin got a weird look on her face for a moment.

"Yeah, I guess that makes sense," Austin said. "I guess I'm not very used to the mortal world. I can't expect people to be used to my world."

"This is going to be harder than we thought isn't it?" Cisco asked.

"I never thought it would be easy," Austin responded.

"I did," Ralph said. "We're fighting people who have sticks as weapons."

"I could use this stick to literally explode your brain," Austin said, holding her wand up.

"And so could these evil casters," Caitlin said.

"Cassandra didn't seem so bad," Ralph said.

"We barely held up against her together," Cisco said.

"Okay, fair point," Ralph said."But we've grown since then right?"

"One can only hope," Austin said, mirth present in her voice. "Let's just get back to work, we can fill Barry and Iris in when they get back."

"Yeah, so is there like a technique to wand wielding or something?" Ralph asked.

"Just make sure it's pointing in the right direction and don't drop it," Austin responded. "Beyond that it's really up to the wielder."

"Hey, do your books have any drawings or pictures of the realm?" Caitlin asked. "It might be good to get some visuals."

"Let me check," she responded. She walked down the hallway to the closet where they kept Austin's spellcaster teaching supplies. They thought it best not to just leave it out in the open considering how often people just wander in the lab.

"Are you worried about going back to the realm?" Cisco asked Caitlin.

"I don't know," she shrugged. "I haven't been there since I was 16 and even then I didn't go far and was wearing a cloak the whole time."  
"Why did you go back at all then?: Ralph asked.

"I needed a stronger wand, I still only had my trainer," Caitlin said. "Otherwise my wand would break and I wouldn't be able to use magic. Well I could but it wouldn't end well."  
"I thought you needed wands to use magic at all though," Cisco said.

"Well, to use it safely and to its full potential yes," Caitlin said. "Technically spellcasters can use wandless magic but without a conduit, such as a wand, the magic burns directly through you. Too much power causes your blood to literally boil, at the very least you become weakened."

"So boiling blood," Ralph asked. "Does that-"

"Kill you?" Caitlin asked. "Yes."

"Okay, so no wandless magic for you," Cisco said.

"Uh, yeah," she responded. At that moment Austin came back with the books.

"Okay, so no pictures in the textbook," Austin said. "Not updated at least. I'll try and take some next time I go back and bring them for our next lesson."

"Good," Caitlin said. "But I think we've done enough for today. I think more than just Barry needs a break."

"Agreed," Austin said. "Just keep studying. We leave in just a few weeks." Cisco watched her flash out and then realized he was still holding her wands.

"Uh, Cait," he said, holding them out. She rolled her eyes and grabbed them.

"I'll put them with mine in my safe," she said.

"Thanks," he said. As the team left STAR Labs Cisco started to really think about what this new adventure could mean. Even if they win, they could still be open to new threats from spellcasters. Their lives would never be the same again, for the second, or let be honest, 500th time. Still, this was a new level of insanity. Even for him. He just had to have faith that the team and Austin would be able to pull this off before anything else happened. He could go without another life altering reveal for a while but that was a thought he would later regret.


	16. Chapter 15

Caitlin

December 15th, 2018

When Caitlin first saw the date on her cellphone her heart sank. Filmya Day. When she was a kid, Filmya Day was her favorite holiday. It was a big part of spellcaster culture and was a very important holiday spiritually for her. Unfortunately she hadn't celebrated properly for years. The team had never knows she was a spellcaster and even if they had known it wouldn't have mattered. They would celebrate with her for sure if she told them but it would never feel the same. It has a different meaning for non magical creatures. They had Christmas. She had Filmya Day. She briefly considered contacting Austin about it but they weren't close at all. Their relationship was purely business at this point. Plus, she was busy with the festivities back in the Realm that day. She sighed and pulled herself out of bed. When she went to the safe to grab her wand something stopped her. She couldn't bring herself to open the safe. She distanced herself from magic as much as possible on this day. It just made her realize that she was the only spellcaster. She knew she might need it though so she finally pushed herself to grab it. She finished getting ready and tried to force herself to walk out the door. She had promised herself that she wouldn't mention anything to the team. It wouldn't help and they didn't need to spend the day trying to cheer her up.

When she arrived at STAR Labs it was business as usual. Research, scanning for Metas, studying the Realm. The wand in her back pocket felt like fire. She was homesick. "Hay Cait," Iris said, walking past her with Barry on her left. He gave her a weird look.

"Are you okay?" he asked, clearly seeing through her fake smile.

"Yeah, I guess I'm just tired," she said. "The last few weeks have been busier than normal."

"No kidding," Ralph chimed.

"I know, the Christmas season is supposed to be chill," Cisco said.

"Name one chill Christmas in the last four years," Barry said. Cisco stopped talking.

"Did someone say Christmas?" Cecile said walking into the room holding baby Jenna in a Santa onesie. Joe walked in behind her holding bags of what looked like christmas decorations.

"Cecile thought you all could take a break and just decorate the cortex today," Joe explained.

"I think that's a great idea," Iris said. "Austin's busy in the Realm today anyway."

"Could be fun," Ralph said.

"No super speed," Cisco said. "That's cheating."

"Come on, not for Christmas," Barry said laughing. Then all eyes turned to Caitlin. She plastered on a fake smile again.

"Sounds like fun," she forced out. Over the next hour or so the cortex was transformed into a winter wonderland. Jenna was laughing as Cecile showed her the different shiny decorations. Caitlin smiled. For real this time. She wished she remembered being that young.

"Is it because it's Christmas?" Barry asked, coming up behind her.

"What?" she asked, turning towards him.

"You look sad," Barry said. "Not tired. Trust me, I know that look. Especially around this time of year." She and Barry actually did have a lot in common. They both lost parents at a young age. They both have superpowers, well, hers were currently AWOL but she would get Killer Frost back eventually. They had both experienced the people that they live die. Sure, Iris ended up being alive but that doesn't mean that in that moment it wasn't real. So she understood how he could tell something was up. It was Christmas time, family time. She was sure that he had some hard Christmases growing up. They might still be hard sometimes. Even if her sadness was coming from a different holiday, the feeling was the same.

"Yeah," she admitted softly. "I just, miss my dad. And Ronnie. I just miss my family."

"You know we're your family too," Barry offered, he held her gaze steadily. She did know. They were her family. But they could never understand what it was like to be her. They could never connect with her the ways that she wants. That wasn't fair to them. They loved her, she loved them. It should be enough. For the last few years it almost was. This year it was just harder because they knew. She couldn't hide anymore yet something still compelled her to lie. To keep this thing to herself. Maybe to protect them. Maybe to protect her.

"I know you are," Caitlin said, flitting her gaze to the floor. "Sometimes it just hits you, you know?" She looked back up. Barry held her gaze for a moment more.

"Yeah," he said. "I know." Then he turned away and went to help hang tinsel on the tree. She wished that he really did understand but their talk did help cheer her up a bit so she went to help wrap ribbon around the cortex. Things were going well for a while. Caitlin hadn't forgotten about Filmya Day but it was in the back of her mind. That is, until someone remembered that magic was a thing and decided to ask questions.

"Do you celebrate Christmas in the Spellcaster Realm?" Iris asked Caitlin as they got on the topic. Caitlin froze but tried to play it cool.

"Uh, no," she said. "We don't celebrate most mortal holidays."

"Well I guess we don't celebrate most of yours so that's only fair," Ralph said. Her holidays. She had never really thought of it like that. Both worlds had holidays that were important to her but she had always more strongly holidays from when she was a kid, in the Realm.

"What's your favorite?" Cisco asked.

"Oh, well, I don't know," Caitlin said. "I always wanted to celebrate Siy De Lohcatep Fe but the last one was before I was born and the next one is next year but I don't see that being in my future." She was telling the truth but she was also mostly deflecting.

"Siy De Lohcatep Fe?" Barry asked pronouncing it surprisingly well.

"Day of the Eclipse," Caitlin clarified.

"What's that?" Cecile asked.

"Unlike Earth, the Realm only has an eclipse once every thirty years," Caitlin said. "Well, almost. Anyway, it's not just an eclipse with our moon. During an eclipse the spirit of the moon goddess chooses one unborn child to gift immense power to."

"Wait," Ralph said. "So every thirty years some moon lady comes down and tells a pregnant lady that her kid is the chosen one?"

"That's a simplified way of saying it yeah," Caitlin exclaimed. "My mom was pregnant with me last time there was supposed to be one. The date of the eclipse is usually responsible for our baby booms."

"Wait, what do you mean supposed to be?" Barry asked. "You mean there wasn't one thirty years ago?"

"Nope," Caitlin said. "At least not in the Realm. It's happened before but not often. Usually what happens is the eclipse happens on Earth."

"But if the point is to bless a spellcaster why go to Earth?" Cisco asked. "Does some random mortal woman just think some ghost is telling her her kid will basically be Hermione Granger?"

"Well, no," Caitlin said. "The goddess only blesses children who are already determined to be born with magic. It could be a spellcaster, a syllogism, an agoria or an agorio but not a mortal.

"A syllogism, isn't that a spellcaster child of two mortals?" Iris asked Caitlin nodded.

"Then my thing about Hermione still stands," Cisco said.

"I mean, technically yeah," Caitlin said. "But it's also possible that whoever was blessed was a full blooded spellcaster whose parents left the realm like mine. Or just have one spellcaster parent like I said. I had a friend when I was a kid who was an agario who was born on Earth during the eclipse but then she came to live with her father in the Realm."

"Is your friend the child?" Joe asked.

"Not as far as I know," she responded. "And we call them Eclipse Babies."

"Okay, so an Eclipse Baby is born," Iris said. "What exactly do you do to celebrate?"

"There's supposed to be a big festival," Caitlin said. "Lots of treats and dancing. Then we honor the mother and her family if she chooses to come forward. They usually do. They tend to become close to the royal family."

"Well yeah," Ralph said. "They want that baby power."

"Well, maybe we can throw our own festival next year," Iris said smiling. As soon as she said that Caitlin remembered what day it is was. She had gotten so caught up in explaining spellcaster culture that she forgot the whole reason she was talking about this was because she didn't want to talk about Filmya Day.

"Yeah, maybe," Caitlin said noncommittally. Then Jenna started crying.

"Oh, she's hungry," Cecile said and then stepped away to get her baby bag.

"It's still freaky when you do that," Joe said following her, obviously referring to her mind reading capabilities.

"Okay, maybe we should just get back to training," Caitlin said wanting to get out of further conversation. No one objected to seemed to think anything was off about her. THe rest of the day passes rather uneventfully. Well, aside from the meta attack but that was dealt with quickly and was an almost welcomed distraction from the spellcaster situation. When they finally called it a night Caitlin trudged home. Grateful that she could just go be by herself for a few hours. She had texted her mom and wished her a happy Filmya Day but she hadn't responded. She didn't expect her to. Caitlin was just alone today.

Mortals wouldn't understand how she was feeling about today. She had known that if she had told her friends they would have equated the holiday to Christmas and promise to make the holiday 'magical' this year. When she says that they can't replicate the holiday even if she gave them a handbook she is serious. With Filmya Day you still give gifts to the people that are important to you but you only give one to each. Whatever you give them, it's not just a new toy or cash, it's supposed to be something meaningful. Plus, you imbue it with your magical signature and essence. You don't even have to cast a spell, you just have to focus and hold it to your heart. It sounds cheesy but it means a lot to the casters, and to Caitlin.

So, when she opened the door to her apartment she wasn't in high spirits. She hung her jacket on the rack, put her bag down on the counter and re locked her wand in the safe. Then she decided to plop down on the couch and just do some binge watching to take her mind off things. So, she was surprised that when she sat down on the couch, there was a small jewelry box sitting in the center of the coffee table. She looked at it confused, it hadn't been there that morning. Slowly, she reaches out and picks it up. On top is a note.

 _Caitlin,_

 _Happy Filmya Day._

There was no signature but she noticed the seal on the paper was that of the royal family. It must have been from Austin. She didn't think they were that close but maybe Austin thought differently. Or maybe she just thought Caitlin would like whatever it was and decided to cheer her up. She did have a habit of watching her. Slowly Caitlin opened the box. Inside was a silver chain with a pendant attached. The pendant was also silver but it held the image of her family's crest. A shield with an askew snowflake on the bottom right. In the middle of the little snowflake was a small clear gem. She didn't think it was a diamond but it was built similarly. She smiled. It had been beautifully crafted. She slowly clipped it around her neck. It was strangely calming and when she held it in her hand she could feel the magical essence imbued with it. She smiled and for the first time in years, Caitlin went to bed happy for the first Filmya Day in a long time.


	17. Chapter 16

Cisco

December 16th, 2018

One moment, Cisco was brushing his teeth and the next he was standing in the middle of the cortex. He looked around confused and pulled the toothbrush out of his mouth.

"Wha da?" he asked, his mouth still foaming with toothpaste. Suddenly, Austin stormed up to him and held out a cup.

"Spit," she said. He obeyed and then wiped his mouth.

"Austin, what the hell?" Iris asked, Cisco glanced at her and almost laughed. She looked pissed but she was obviously still in her night shirt because she was currently swimming is Barry's jacket. Barry, for his part, just looked annoyed.

"Sorry, but there was an attack on the castle last night," she explained. The look on Caitlin's face after she said that could only be described as scandalized which didn't make any sense given the context but it was the truth. He gave her a look but she didn't seem to notice.

"Was anyone hurt?" Barry asked, his annoyance dissipating.

"No, but the magic vault was breached," Austin said. "The attack was a distraction for someone to sneak in elsewhere but we don't know who or how."

"What's the magic vault?" Ralph asked.

"It's essentially where we keep the physical manifestation of magic powers," she responded.

"How does that work?" Joe asked.

"And is it dangerous?" Iris asked.

"We have these, orbs," Austin said, pausing to find the right word. "Contained in these orbs is a fog, or swirl of magic. Each one corresponds to the known houses of magic. Many of them contain ancient magic, from the earliest known member of each family. And yes, that power can be dangerous in the wrong hands. It's supposed to be an archive, not a weapon. That magic can be used to directly affect an entire bloodline, or magical lineage."

"Which family's magic was taken?" Caitlin asked.

"Officially? No ones," Austin said. "Unofficially, we don't know. Every orb is accounted for but whoever was in there was there for a time before they were scared off. They may have been doing something more than stealing."

"Like what?" Cecile asked. Austin had a defeated face.

"Any number of things," Austin said. "It will take time for us to tell. The point is, we need to step up our timeline. Assuming these people are the same ones we've been dealing with then they are making a move and we have to counter."

"So that's why you flashed us here at eight in the morning?" Cisco asked.

"I was still in bed," Iris shot back.

"Clearly," Austin said. "Go and get dressed and get back here. We're leaving for the realm in an hour."

"Wait, today?" Barry asked.

"You don't have to go anywhere Barry," Austin said. "And Ralph, Joe and Cecile, you are wall going to stay here like we planned. But everyone else, yeah. Today." Barry looked ready to say something but Iris grabbed his hand.

"We can talk about this at home," she explained. Essentially her way of saying "take me home right now, I'm literally wearing your jacket as a dress" he assumed. Barry relented and sped her out of the room.

"Okay, I'll go and get the potion and my wands, Caitlin, you get the comms," Austin ordered. The other spellcaster nodded and followed orders. Then Austin flashed out of the room.

"You ready for this Cisco?" Joe asked, since he was currently the only one in the room actually going.

"I guess so," he responded. "This is going to be interesting."

"Didn't Austin say something about finding different clothes?" Ralph asked.

"Yeah, you going to the equivalent of a different country or universe, the styles are probably different," Cecile added.

"She did but I don't know if she found everything yet," Cisco responded. "I don't think they wear schooling robes on a day to day basis." Because that aspect of Harry Potter they got right, or similar but actually pretty different according to Caitlin, whatever that meant. A moment later Caitlin came running back into the room and handed Caitlin a comm, then Barry and Iris sped back in the room. Barry still didn't look happy but Iris was now fully ready for the day.

"So you guys are really doing this?" he asked.

"Yes," Iris responded shortly. "Barry, we are going to be fine. I'm going to be fine. We've been over this."

"Yeah dude, I wish I could go with them," Ralph said. "Just calm down with the rhabdophobia."

"Rhabdowhatia?" Joe asked.

"Fear of magic," Caitlin said.

"How did you know that?" Cisco asked.

"I know things," Ralph said.

"Okay, well however you know it, I don't have it," Barry said. "I just don't like this situation."

"No one does," Iris said. "But I think you're still upset over Devoe. We all want a break Barry but you can't just keep on being mad at the problem." Barry made a self conscious glance around at the others in the room who all pretended like they weren't watching.

"Okay, fine I'll try to keep it in check, just be careful okay?" he said softly to her. Cisco could only hear because he was relatively close to them. He saw Iris nod and then give Barry a kiss on the cheek.

"Well, that's cute," Austin said. Wait, Austin? Cisco turned to see austin standing at the entrance to the cortex with a bag in her hand and her arms crossed.

"Do you have everything?" Caitlin asked.

"I have wands, potions and some current spellcaster stylings," she said.

"Which means what exactly?" Cisco asked.

"Jackets," she said. "That's all I really had time to find so just keep them closed," she told them before passing out items to the proper people.

"You're sure this potion will keep people from recognizing me?" Caitlin asked.

"It's not so much your face as your magical signature," she explained. "So I changed it a little from the original plan. You are a lot older than people remember so as long as you try not to draw too much attention to yourself, all you'll need this potion for is to alter your magical signature."

"You can do that?" Caitlin asked.

"Well, it wouldn't fool magical sensors or anyone actively checking but the general feeling of it yes," she explained.

"People can really just tell who you are by sensing it?" Joe asked.

"They sense your magic, not you," Austin clarified.

"Well, higher level casters anyway," Caitlin clarified. "Lower level ones like me aren't really able to sense magic without a spell unless another caster wanted us to."

"Why is magic so confusing?" Ralph asked.

"Right, because technology is so easy to understand," Austin responded. Cisco was scandalized.

"Excuse me?" he asked.

"Woah, hey, stand down," Caitlin said, stepping forward. "Magic and technology are essentially equivalents in our world."

"Are they really though?" Austin asked.

"Why is this a conversation we're just having now?" Iris asked.

"Yeah, seems like this little debate should have happened a long time before you guys decided to take a journey to the realm," Cecile said.

"I'm just kidding," Austin said. "Mostly. But we really do just need to focus on the mission right now."

"And what exactly is the mission of this little trip?" Joe asked.

"Just recon," she explained. "You guys need to find your footing and fast."

"What about the vault?" Cisco asked. Austin shook her head apprehensively.

"I can't get you guys in there," she explained. "The entire guard is on high alert. Even if they weren't the vault is the most secure place in the castle. Or, it's supposed to be."

"Yeah, okay," Iris said. "We get it, one step at a time. As long as we start moving."

"Exactly," Austin responded.

"Yeah, makes sense, I'm in," Caitlin. "It's going to be weird going back though."

"Which is exactly why we need to get going now," Austin said.

"Right now?" Iris asked.

"The sooner the better," she responded. "Gather round." Austin motioned for them to step forwards.

"Oh so this is happening, okay," Cisco said, stepping forwards. He looked back at his friends. Iris was giving Barry a peck on the lips, assuring him that she would be fine before walking over. Caitlin had paused and taken a breath before moving, he saw her close her eyes and reach up to grab her necklace. A moment later she seemed fine and finally stepped forwards.

"Everyone ready?" Austin asked. Everyone nodded. Then Caitlin downed the potion and as soon as she was done Austin called out the spell. There was a bright flash that faded into a darker one. When the light dissipated Cisco looked up in awe. They were in the Spellcaster Realm.


	18. Chapter 17

Caitlin

December 16, 2018

The realm hadn't changed as much as Caitlin had thought. She could still feel the magic all around her, the sky was a dark royal blue and the sun had a lavender hue. All around her there were mismatched buildings, sitting at odd angles, some were even floating while others were underground. Spellcasters were never ones for conventional architecture. All around them were rolling hills and children were chasing each other around with their training wands, calling out joke spells. All around we're floating lights, the realm's equivalent of street lamps, coating the streets with a golden shine. In the distance sat the castle, somehow the building most similar to it's Earthly counterpart despite the floating rooms.

"Woah," Cisco said beside her.

"Yeah, woah," Iris breathed.

"Hey guys, casters don't normally get awestruck by their own realm," Austin whispered loudly.

"Right, where to now?" Caitlin asked.

"We're just going to take a stroll through town," Austin said. "If anyone asks, you are from the far side of the kingdom and got lost so I decided to show you around." As if on cue a voice called out.

"Hello Austin!" the voice said.

"Hello, Mr. Fitz," she responded with a smile. "He was one of my teachers back in school," she explained to us as we began walking.

"Wait, which school did you go to?" Caitlin asked.

"Trixie," Austin responded. Caitlin froze internally but kept walking.

"Why does your school sound like a dog?" Cisco asked.

"Oh, that's just what we called it," Austin said. "But the full name it the Trix Academy for Gifted Spellcasters. Trixie."

"That sounds fancy," Iris said.

"It is," Caitlin said, finding her voice. "It only accepts the best and is very competitive. My mom and dad were trying to get me in there before...anyway, children of guards tend to get in easier. Anyone else is just naturally talented or has rich parents."

"So I'm guessing one of your parents was a guard?" Iris asked.

"Uh, no actually," she responded as the main street came into view. "I was a scholarship kid I guess. My parents died when I was a kid, I grew up with my uncle and he always pushed me to do my best. I got into the school because of my abilities. It's the whole reason why I ended up a guard."

"Woah," Caitlin said, slightly starstruck. "I mean, your life is basically what I strived to do but why did you become a guard? With magic like that you could do anything."

"I guess I just found my calling," she said simply as she entered the main street. "Here we are, main street."

"So, do we talk to people or?" Iris asked.

"Not unless they talk first," Austin cautioned. "I have to go check in but you guys stick with Caitlin and get a feel for the town. I'll send you the location of my house when it's time to meet back up."

'You're just leaving us?" Cisco asked.

"It took longer than I thought to wrangle you guys, plus, the guard is on high alert like I said," she explained. "Our number of briefings and reports have increased. I'll be back soon." With that, she took off down the street and disappeared. Not literally this time but close enough.

"Why didn't she think about this before hand?" Cisco grumbled.

"It's possible she didn't know," Caitlin said. "Sometimes they do emergency meetings, it wouldn't surprise me with what has been going on."

"Okay, well, you're the spellcaster, where to now?" Iris asked.

"Let's go see if the cafe is still here," she said.

"What cafe?" Cisco asked.

"When I was a kid my dad would take me there every Friday morning before school," she said. "I'd get steamed strawberry. It was always a good place to get to know people."

"What the hell is steamed strawberry?" Cisco asked.

"Kinda like hot chocolate except thinner and fruiter," Caitlin responded.

"Cool, let's check it out," Iris said. They wandered down main street, Caitlin could see her friends casting glances about, most people weren't giving them a second glance. Caitlin felt oddly exposed even though she was sure no one knew who she was. It had just been so long since she had been here, it felt wrong but she also felt right at home. She was so lost in thought that she almost missed the cafe sign.

"There it is," she said, when she realized where they were.

"Cafe Trilogy," Cisco read.

"Yeah, it's one of three around the realm," she explained.

"Clever," Iris commented. Caitlin saw her giving the building an odd look. Of course, it wasn't the first. The architecture here was somewhat unconventional, at least to someone without magic. They were usually slanted and had strange bends. Stairs weren't really a thing here. The apparent bends in the building were usually second floors or ledges. Sometimes balconies were even on the outside. The buildings in a row tended to fit together like puzzle pieces, but that was rare as the roads here weren't straight, they swirled out in many directions.

"Wow, reading about it and living it are two different things," Cisco whispered, noticing Iris's odd look.

"It is a bit jarring if you're not used to it," Caitlin muttered. Then she took a breath and pushed the door open. The interiors hadn't changed that much. Unlike the cafe's on earth, the counter was in the middle of the room with the baristas inside a hollow square. They had the needed ingredients stored around them as well as cups, but they used magic rather than machines, reducing the need for space. She knew that they kept extra ingredients under the floor and just lifted them up when needed. There were tabled all around the bottom floor bus some of the ledges or lofts from the building architecture, while slightly slanted, were also set up with tables and there were magical lifts and anti gravitational field bubbled allowing patrons to get up and remain there. Caitlin was sure the others were confused, especially about how the people had gotten up there, the left was difficult to see as it was basically invisible floating stars in some aspects, but Caitlin could see the glow of magic just fine. A drink whizzed by her face, having been delivered by a barista from the counter. Cisco let out a small yel behind her and she immediately shot him a look. He gave her a wide eyed look and then a thumbs up.

"Should we get something?" Iris asked, looking at the giant floating words that functioned as the menu. Caitlin knew she couldn't real it of course, it was written in Milic.

"Uh, I'll order for you," Caitlin said softly. "Some of the drinks are...odd. For you two at least." Iris gave her an apprehensive look but motioned for her to go. She walked up to the counter.

"Hello, welcome to Cafe Trilogy, how can I help you today?" an obviously teenaged spellcaster asked.

"Uh, I'll have an algre steamed strawberry and two lalms jallup mixers please," Caitlin ordered.

"Perfect, that will be 25 drenches," the woman said. Caitlin froze. She forgot that she only had American money on her. 25 drenches was only about 12 or so dollars US but it would look strange to use a dollar or a credit card. On instinct, Caitlin reached her hand into her jacket pocket. Luckily, Austin clearly had though ahead when she had passed out the wardrobe articles because she could feel the small marble coins inside. She quickly pulled out a purple and a blue drench and handed them over.

"Okay, you're drinks will be right over, have a nice day," the barista said. Caitlin smiled and thanked her and walked back to their friends.

"Let's find a table on the bottom floor, I don't think you guys want to try the lifts," Caitlin whispered.

"The what now?" Cisco asked. Cailin just shrugged and they found a relatively secluded seat in the corner. Perfect for people watching.

"What did you get us?" Iris asked.

"Jallup mixers," Caitlin said. "Kind of like a spicy coffee."

"So you got us pumpkin spice lattes?" Iris asked.

"No, not pumpkin spice," she clarified. "It has a bit of the kick but that's the idea. It's supposed to wake you up. You don't actually have to drink it, just try to blend in."

"Okay, so are all places like this...strange?" Cisco asked.

"What's strange is using multiple lightbulb so light up a room instead of one floating

bubble of bottled up magic," Caitlin said. "Each universe has their own normal, our's just tends to follow different laws than yours." Iris gave her an odd look. "What?"

"I think that's the first time you've really spoken about the mortal world as if it wasn't your home," Iris said. She was right.

"Yeah, I guess," Caitlin said. "Probably just being here, it brings back memories. Earth is my home, now anyway, but it's not the only place that has ever been, not like it is for you two."

"Fair enough," Cisco said. That's when the alarm sounded.

"What the hell is that?" Iris asked.

"I remember Austin giving us a list of alarms but I didn't memorize them all," Cisco said.

"That would be a threat of attack alarm," Caitlin said.

"As is the crazies who have been attacking us?" Iris asked.

"Maybe," she exclaimed. "We have to get out of here before the guards show up. Potion or no potion, some of them might still recognize me." No sooner had the words left her mouth was there a flash and there was a guard in the building. Caitlin could see others appearing outside.

"I want everyone to remain calm," the guard said, this one male but wearing a similar uniform to Austin's. "There has been a threat of attack on certain member of the community but we ask that everyone remain calm until we determine who, why and if there is any truth to the threats."

"We need to leave, now," Caitlin whispered.

"How, he's guarding the door?" Iris asked.

"Hold on tight," she exclaimed and held out her wrists. Before the guard could turn their head to see what was happening, Cisco and Iris had grabbed on and Caitlin had whispered a spell, sending them to the preset coordinates of Austin's house in Caitlin's wand. They ended up stumbling into Austin's living room.

"Woah, since when can you do that?" Cisco asked.

"Yeah, I knew you could do transport spells but I've never seen you do more than yourself to a location you've been to before," Iris said.

"Yeah," caitlin said, breathing heavily, "well, taking both of you was the hard part but Austin already sent me the coordinates of her house, I think that being here, closer to home made me a little bit stronger, or atleast better at focusing my magic. I just hope the guard didn't notice."

"Why?" Cisco asked. "I'm sure in a state of panic plenty of people transport away."

"Yeah, but you're not supposed to," Caitlin exclaimed. "You're supposed to wait do further instruction, people who leave early are normally assumed to already be aware of what is happening and are either a part of it or planning to do something stupid to stop it."

"So you just don't want unnecessary questions," Iris said.

"Bingo," Caitlin responded, then held her hand up to her ear. "Austin, what the hell is happening?" There was a pause and then Austin's voice came across the comms.

"A group called the purists claim to plan to remove all non true bloods from the realm, dead or alive," she responded quietly.

"The same people we are dealing with?" Iris asked.

"If I had to venture a guess," Austin responded. "Look, they are keeping me at the castle for now, just in case this is a false alarm, but until they get this cleared up, all transport spells are going to be on lack down as soon as the council clears it, you have to get home. Now."

"Austin, I just did a bigger transport spell than I'm used to," Caitlin explained. "I need to recharge before I can take us all the way back home."

"Maybe I can breach us back, it's not magic," Cisco exclaimed.

"That could work, just hurry," Austin said. "I'll break away as soon as I can."

"Okay, go Cisco," Caitlin said. Cisco took stance and tried to open a breach. Emphasis on tried.

"Come on Cisco," Iris said.

"I am, it's not working," he said, still trying to open the breach. Caitlin watched as he moved, then she saw it.

"Wait, do that again," she said. Cisco once again tried to open a breach. "Magic."

"What?" Iris asked.

"There's a spell or something, it's stopping Cisco from opening the breach," she explained.

"But it's not a transport spell," Iris exclaimed.

"I know that but I just know what I see," Caitlin said. "We're stuck here."


	19. Chapter 18

Cisco

December 16, 2018

"What do you mean we're stuck here?" Iris asked, whirling towards Caitlin.

"I mean, I can't cast a transport spell and for some reason, Cisco can't breach," the spellcaster responded. "Ergo, we can't leave the Spellcaster Realm."

"Okay, but why can't I breach?" Cisco asked, his face scrunching up in confusion. Caitin shrugged.

"I can't think of a spell that would prevent you from breaching, it is oddly specific," she responded. "But the magical film looked odd, almost like the atmosphere was fighting against you."

"So it's not a spell?" Iris tried to clarify.

"I don't l know what it is honestly," Caitlin admitted. "Austin might but she's tied up at the castle."

"And we're tied up here," Iris grumbled.

"How long will the transport lock down last?" Cisco questioned.

"There's no way to know," Caitlin admitted. "They either have to decide that the threat is false or catch the people responsible."

"Which isn't likely any time soon," Iris added before pausing. "This isn't a coincidence is it? They know we're here."

"It's possible," Caitlin told her. "They may be trying to trap us away from the rest of our team. At the very least they want to make sure we don't have an out."

"Barry and the team will be worried if we don't contact them soon," Iris said. "Do you have something that will allow us temporary inter dimensional communication?"

"Not without using a breach or a transport spell," Caitlin said. "I mean, if one of them was a spellcaster too I could contact them through their wand but that's not exactly helpful right now. We'll just have to hope we figure out a plan soon."

"So what are we going to do?" Cisco asked. "We can't exactly go out on the town to do more recon during all this."

"No, but we are in the house of a master caster," Caitlin said, looking around. "I'm sure she has some texts that could help us figure out what is stopping your powers. Or atleast help us with our original mission until the transport spell block goes down."

"Uh, can we just look around her house like that?" Iris questioned, giving Caitlin an uncertain glance.

"Hey Austin," Caitlin said, activating her comm once again. "Can we look through your house? Something is going on with Cisco's powers and we're kind of stuck here for the time being." There was silence for a moment.

"She might not be able to respond right now," Cisco noted just before Austin's voice came across the comms.

"Yeah, my books are upstairs in the study," she said. "Find some way home quickly. The longer you're here, the easier it is for the Purists to get to you."

"Thanks," Caitlin told her.

"Just please don't go in the closet down the hall, I have my ceremonial cloak and things in there," Austin added quickly in a whisper. "I've got to go. Good luck."

"Ceremonial cloak?" Iris asked.

"Austin is both a master caster and a castle guard," Caitlin said. "There are important ceremonies in the Spellcaster Realm and dressing properly is important spiritually. Plus, she probably wears the cloak whenever she visits the schools or other places of high power, it's usually respectful. I have my school robes for ceremonies."

"Okay that makes sense I guess. Can't have the mortals touching sacred magical objects," Cisco joked before looking around with a confused look on his face. "Now, where is the study because I don't see an upstairs?" Austin's house actually did look remarkable similar to something you might see on Earth but in many of the walls there were gray cylinders that appeared to function as shelves for display cases. The lighting in the room was a series of small glowing something or others that were clearly magic. The kept on adjusting the brightness, based on what Cisco didn't know. There was also the hallway that Austin mentioned and Cisco could see the door at the end of it, there was one on the side of it too. They were standing in what appeared to be the living room, the furniture was somewhat similar to the normal stuff, chairs and couches and such. Some were floating and at least one was smaller when they popped in Cisco was sure of it. Next to them was the kitchen which was mostly just counterspace and some kind of box on the ground where you would expect a fridge to be. The door to the pantry was open so that actually looked pretty normal inside. But as far as Cisco could tell, there were only four doors visible in the room, one was the closet, one was a pantry, one was the front door, and one was in the hallway. The house essentially amounted to a T and it didn't appear as though there was anything on the other side of the T so Cisco was thoroughly confused.

"She probably has a switch door," Caitlin said, heading towards the mystery door.

"A what now?" Iris asked, following the other female. Caitlin pulled open the door to reveal a swirling purple and pink portal.

"What happened to no transport spells?" Cisco asked, the portal shared a strong resemblance to his breaches.

"It's a switch door," Caitlin said. "There are at least two other rooms in the house, probably more. This door is kind of like a portal to all of them so you can save space. But it's not a transportation spell. It's contained within the house and anchored to the door."

"Hu?" Iris said.

"It's a transport spell but it can only be used within the house and not modified t=so the ban doesn't affect it," Caitlin clarified.

"So, we just walk in and hope we get the right room?" Iris asked.

"It kind of just knows where you want to go," Caitlin said. "It's like walking through any door at your own house and expecting to come into a certain room. Watch." She then proceeded to walk through the portal. A moment later she walked back out holding a book.

"I take it you found the study," Cisco said. Caitlin nodded and motioned for them to follow. Luckily, both Cisco and Iris were used to jumping through portals so it was probably the least strange experience they'd had since coming to the Spellcaster Realm.

"This place is bigger than the living room!" Iris exclaimed.

"Yeah, I imagined a Spellcaster study to be small and stock full of books," Cisco said looking around.

"Wait, where are the books?" Iris asked. Caitlin silently pointed upwards. Both Cisco and

Iris looked up.

"Holy Harry Potter," Cisco exclaimed. The books were literally flying around the room like they were birds.

"Do they all do that?" Iris asked.

"Not normally, Austin must have used an animation spell one them," Caitlin admitted.

"It's like something out of a Disney movie," she thought out loud.

"Yeah, magic is like that," Caitlin said softly, her eyes shining as she looked up at the books. Watching Caitlin around magic was something else. It was clear that she had missed the Realm. Cisco couldn't imagine growing up in a world like this and then just having to give it all up one day and pretend like it never happened. His eyes searched the books, wondering if any of them would be helpful. Then he wondered how they were going to get them down.

"Uh, Cait?" Cisco asked, disappointed to have to interrupt Caitlin's moment. Caitlin blinked and turned heer head towards him. "How, do we get them down?" She smirked, then she her hand up into the air and a book flew right into it. She pulled it down and handed it to him.

"A lot of magic is intuitive," Caitlin said with a little laugh.

"So we've noticed" Iris said. "Are any of these books actually going to help us?"

"She has a surprising amount of books on the mortal world in here," Caitlin said, her brows furrowed. "Most of them actually written by spellcaster researchers. Those might say something about what's going on, though I doubt any of them have taken metahuman powers into account."

"Is that Ender's Game?" Cisco asked, noticing a familiar cover fly past him.

"Yeah, she has a few mortal books too," Caitlin said. "That might be why she seemed a little bit more comfortable on Earth than I would have expected. Not sure where she got them though, they don't sell them here."

"What, so she's a closet Earth lover?" Cisco joked.

"My mom was, she heavily studied Earth when I was a kid, that's why we moved there eventually," Caitlin answered passively. "I think they also offer elective classes but it's almost the equivalent of studying history or geography, or something, of another country. It's just not a super popular one."

"Well, thank goodness Austin loves to learn," Iris said. "That's probably why she had a soft spot for us." As they were talking, something on Cisco's desk caught her eye. It was a purple school binder, like one you get from Target. It was made of plastic and full of notebook paper. He walked over to it. Cisco had no idea what it said though because it looked like it was written in Milic. He flipped it open anyway and recognized the setup as one of someone taking notes. Cisco didn't really know Milic but he recognized the time notation from some of Austin's books back on Earth. He could clearly see times on the left with other writing next to them on the right. It was like she was running an experiment of some kind. She didn't always have a lot written down but there were a few times when there would be a page or two with no time notation but a whole lot of words.

"What are you looking at?" Iris asked over his shoulder.

"I think Austin's personal notebook," Cisco said. "But it's in Milic, I have no idea what it says."

"Stop reading her personal stuff!" Caitlin exclaimed appearing next to Cisco and pulling the binder out of his hand.

"Come on, it's not like her diary," Cisco said and then paused. "I think."

"It doesn't-" Caitlin started but cut off as her eyes caught the page.

"What is it?" Iris asked, eyeing the scientist. No response.

"Caitlin?" Cisco asked.

"Hm?" she murmured noncommittally. Then after a moment she blinked and looked up as if realizing that she wasn't alone. "I'm uh- I'm going to go downstairs for a bit. You guys keep searching for information here." Then she hurried out of the room, flipping through the pages of Austin's notebook, and disappeared through the switch door.

"What happened to not reading her personal stuff?" Cisco asked.

"Maybe it wasn't so personal after all," Iris said. "Let's just look through some of Austin's history texts, I think I saw one in English somewhere." Both Cisco left his internal thoughts unsaid but the look in Iris' eyes said she had the same ones. There was something in that book that Caitlin wasn't telling them about. Something Austin had been keeping from them. And Cisco had a feeling that it would bring around more questions than answers.


	20. Chapter 19

Note: Sorry about the fanfiction code of doom in the last update. It should be working fine now

Caitlin

December 16th, 2018

As Caitlin flipped through the pages of Austin's journal her eyes got wider and wider. She almost didn't know what to think. The pages of notes that Cisco's thought were part of some experiment were actually much stranger. The notes in the book went back over the past two years and it was clear that there had been at least one book previously because there were references to things that weren't detailed in the journal. Caitlin had no doubt that they'd happened though. Actually she was certain that they had, because many of them she did. The book was full of notes of every member of team flash, herself included. Austin had been watching them since before she revealed her magic to the team. A long time before.

Caitlin reached up to touch her necklace. She flipped it around in her hand, wondering what Austin's intentions were. Almost everything in her told her to throw the necklace across the room and run out of the house but something stopped her. Maybe it was that the fear of being caught in the Realm was stronger than that of temporarily staying in an absentee stalker's house. As for the necklace, she really didn't know. Whenever she touched it it calmed her and she just couldn't bring herself to give up that piece of mind, no matter how misguided it was.

Caitlin had flipped through most of the book, trying to decipher why it was that Austin was watching them. One thing she noticed was that they seemed to be centered around the actions of the team, most of the day to day stuff was absent but any big choices or big team building moments were documented. Almost as if she wanted to make sure they were protecting each other. There was a whole two pages dedicated to HR complete with a blessed seal to thank him for his life. The whole thing was dizzying, especially when she realized that most of the notes were of them altogether or in groups, rarely alone. There was also no mention of Caitlin's spells until the more recent passages where Austin had capitalized, bolded and underlined **CAITLIN IS A SPELLCASTER!** meaning that until that point, Austin hadn't been aware of Caitlin's true identity despite her apparent infamy in the Spellcaster Realm. There was always the possibility that whatever Austin had been watching them for, she had been so focused on that that she ignored all else until it couldn't be ignored anymore. There was also the possibility that Austin had been suspicious of her identity before and that was the whole reason for the spying in the first place and that line was just a note of confirmation. Neither one explained things fully.

The entire reason for the existence of the journal was still a mystery to Caitlin, it seemed to just be a study of the Team Flash dynamic but with no real reason behind it. There were a few mentions of magic but not as much as she would have expected had that been the reason why she was so interested in them. In fact, most of the mentions of magic had been pertaining to Iris and her resilience, her ability to avoid the effects of magic had been mentioned directly at least once as well, before Caitlin herself had found out. There were also other suspicions and allusions of magic pertaining to Caitlin and her other teammates in the journal but none as direct as with Iris. It was strange that she was certain of Iris' ability to deflect magic before she was of Caitlin's ability to wield it.

The other interesting magical note was one scribbled in the margins saying, _Superspeed+Magic=?_. It was honestly something that Caitlin hadn't thought of before. Barry could move too fast for Cisco to open a breach so maybe he could go faster than the speed of magic too. Especially in an area where magic in the minority. Flipping that it would make sense that metahuman powers like Cisco's wouldn't work in the realm because the magic was essentially overpowering it and slowing it down before it got a chance to move fast enough to overpower it. Unless Caitlin could think of some way to either boost the power and speed of Cisco's breaches or decrease the power of magic then they wouldn't be getting home that way. Perfect.

The last few pages of notes are mostly from when Austin made contact with them so the updates were short and far between. The most interesting one probably one of the most personal entries in comparison to the analytic and scientific ones preceding it. It talked about how Austin waited until the last possible second to jump in and save Iris and how she was worried about the consequences from all sides and how even though she didn't regret it, she sighed it hadn't happened the way it did. Whatever that meant. The rest of it was mostly lists of things Austin needed to get from the Realm and outlines of the plans, many of which had been altered and moved up anyway.

"Okay, we have officially run out of useful English books," Iris said, flying into the room, Cisco following behind her.

"Did you find anything interesting in Austin's journal?" He asked. "You were pretty wrapped up in it when you walked out of the study." Caitlin didn't say anything for a moment, unsure of what exactly to say.

"Well, I do think that I've figured out why your powers aren't working."

"Why?"

"The magic her overpowers them and steps them before they can grow to the power required to overwhelm the magic," she explained. "I think the opposite happens with magic versus metahuman powers on Earth."

"Well that's just great."

"Why didn't Austin just tell us that if it's in her journal?"

"I don't think she actually put it together herself, I just pieced it together from some of her notes," Caitlin explained.

"What exactly is in that journal?"

"Austin's observations of us over at least the last two years," she admitted finally.

"What do you mean two years? She's only known us for like a month!" Cisco exclaimed.

"Yeah, but she's been watching us for much longer, apparently it's out knowing that I was a spellcaster and for some reason having advanced knowledge on how magic doesn't affect Iris…" Caitlin trialed off. "That's it!"

"What? That Austin's a magical psychic creep?" Cisco asked.

"No, magic doesn't' affect Iris!" Caitlin exclaimed to blank faces. There was a beat before she continued. "The magic around us isn't harmful necessarily so whatever weird thing you have going on didn't block it, but if you hold onto Cisco and focus on magic not working he should be able to open a breach!"

"Good, now we can get home and try to figure out what the hell is up with Austin," Iris exclaimed, grabbed onto Cisco's arm.

"Should we tell her leaving?" Cisco questioned. "I mean, stalker or not she's still on our side right?"

"I think that Austin is complicated if nothing else but we shouldn't say anything to her until we're sure of her motivations," Caitlin said her nose scrunching. "She'll figure out that we left eventually."

"But if she is on our side and tries to contact us and we don't answer she might risk getting caught to come check on us," Iris reasoned. "Either way I think we should act like nothing's changed." Caitlin's brow furrowed at Iris's words for a moment before reaching up to her comm.

"We found a way out, see you back at STAR Labs," she said quickly before cutting contact. "There, what's done is done, now let's go." Cisco nodded and ensured that Iris's hand was still on his wrist before both focused on opening the breach.

"It's working!" Caitlin exclaimed.

"This was your idea!" Iris said through gritted teeth. "Now hurry up, this is surprisingly difficult!" Caitlin nodded and jumped through the swirling blue portal and tumbling into STAR Labs. Cisco and iris jumped in right behind her ad the breach came to a close. All three were breathing heavy from stress.

"Thank goodness," Joe's voice said as the remaining member of the team filed into the room. Barry immediately ran over to Iris hugged her.

"You had me worried," she heard him mumble, Iris whispered something back as she returned the hug.

"What the hell took you guys so long?" Ralph asked.

"There was a threat in the Spellcaster Realm and they cut off all transport spells," she explained. "Austin was stuck at the castle and Cisco's powers weren't working so we had to figure out a way home." From there Caitlin explained everything, about Austin's journal and metahuman powers mixed with magic. Cisco and iris chimed in whenever they could and Cisco went off on a tangent about architecture for at least five minutes before Iris got him refocused.

"Wait, so Austin has been watching this team for at least two years?" Barry questioned, his eyes full of an emotion that Caitlin couldn't read.

"Evidently," she confirmed.

"She had no right to do that!" he exclaimed.

"Well I agree but we haven't exactly confronted her about it yet."

"We don't even know why she wrote it right?" Caitlin nodded.

"Who exactly is this girl?" Cecile asked.

"I honestly don't know," Caitlin admitted.

"Can we still trust her?"

"What if she's working with the magic creature guys?"

"What if she's more of a rogue guard tan she's letting on?"

"Guys! Don't know the answers to any of that! All we can do is take her wand and confront her when she gets back," Caitlin explained.

"And if she's evil?"

"Then we lock her in the pipeline."


	21. Chapter 20

Cisco

January 5th, 2019

It was well into next year when the team next heard from Austin. According to Caitlin, spellcaster lock downs were no joke, it was already hard enough to make it the mortal world, on a normal day. If it wasn't for Iris's weird anti magic field they would have been stuck there too. So, it was a bit of a surprise when Austin appeared in the cortex with no warning. Given the circumstances Caitlin lunged for her wand and Ralph knocked her wand from her hand. Well, he tried to, she jumped out of the way and Iris grabbed the wand while she was distracted. Unfortunately, Iris trying to play keep away isn't super effective so when Austin tried to grab it back, probably very confused at this point, Barry stepped in and grabbed it from his wife, staring down Austin who finally realized something was up and backed down slowly. As soon as she did Barry shoved the wand at Caitlin, as if just realizing he was holding it, and continued to stare down Austin from the back of the room.

"Okay, did my wand offend you guys or something? What's up?" she asked, her tone was light but her movements were slow and her eyes kept on darting around the room.

"We found your journal," Caitlin said, stepping forwards, arms crossed. Austin's face instantly dissolved into a look of confusion and her body relaxed.

"What journal?" Austin asked. The her credit, it was a brilliant performance, did they have theatre class at magic school?

"You know, the one where you keep all your notes from spying on us," Iris said, walking up behind Caitlin, matching her stance. Austin stood up straight and her eyes got big. She threw her hands up and walked backwards a step, her head shaking almost imperceptibly.

"Look, whatever you guys think you know, it's not what you think," she said carefully.

"We know you've been lying to us," Caitlin barked. "What we don't know is why. You get one chance to explain yourself before we strand you wandless in Siberia." Cisco's eyes widened comically. That certainly hadn't been a part of the plan. Most of Cisco knew she was bluffing to scare Austin but a part of him was slightly terrified of his friend. Austin apparently didn't share that sentiment because she let out a small laugh and her eyebrows went up.

"Wow, didn't expect that coming from you," she said lightly. "Seems more like Killer Frost's style."

"So you admit it, you've been watching us!" Barry exclaimed. The team had never mentioned Frost to Austin, there was no way she could have known, well, not that she was Caitlin anyway.

"I never said I wasn't watching you," Austin insisted. "In fact, the first time we met I told you that I had been watching you to make sure nothing went wrong."

"Austin, that book went back two years!" Iris exclaimed. "Caitlin has only been openly using her magic for a few months now, there was no reason for you to watch us before now. An if there was you wouldn't have lied about it."

"I didn't lie!" sce exclaimed exasperated.

"A lie of omission is still a lie," Cisco butted in.

"Perhaps but sometimes it's a necessary one," the red head admitted. "I'm a guard, I watch people's backs, it's what I do. It's all I know how to do. I do it because if I don't people get hurt."

"So you've been watching Caitlin this whole time?" Joe asked.

"For a few years now, yeah," she admitted softly.

"As in since the particle accelerator a few years or as in since she came here a few years?" Ralph asked.

"Particle accelerator," Austin informed them. "Or thereabouts. For the record, we're the same age and Caitlin came here when she was eight. You really think I was a baby spy?"

"We don't know much about you," Caitlin snapped. "What made you start watching me anyway."

"Boredom I guess," she said. "I like people watching and I picked up some chatter about your family and how you left. I was just curious what it was like here on Earth, I thought you might be able to show me. Then you guys just happened to be really interesting."

"Oh, so we're your own personal reality show now?" Barry asked, voice dripping with sarcasm, his eyes narrowing. He obviously didn't believe her, Cisco wasn't entirely sure that he did either but in the end it was Caitlin's decision. She knew what was plausible and what wasn't. Maybe Austin really did just get bored. People have done worse out of boredom.

"It wasn't like that," Austin sighed, her voice soft. "At first I was just curious, then I got attached. I didn't want anything bad to happen. I thought I could help."

"What, Reverse Flash, Zoom, Savitar and Devoe weren't enough?" Barry asked. "But a haunter comes in and suddenly you're all gun hoe. Sound like you are only willing to help when it benefits you."

"I stepped in because there was nothing else you guys could do!" Austin insisted. "I knew you could stop the others."

"No offense to Iris but we've had others die, what was it about her that made you save her?" Caitlin asked. "Was it because it was a magical creature? Does Barry have a point?"

"I saved Iris because it's my job!" Austin yelled exasperated.

"What does that mean?" Joe asked. Austin looked like she was about to yell again but took a breath instead.

"I protect people, from magic. It's what I'm trained to do," she said in a shaky voice. "I can't fight things I don't understand. I don't know much about meta human. I don't know if magic effects them and even if it did I couldn't have used it. Magic is illegal here."

"So you risk it now?" Iris asked.

"We've been over this," Austin exclaimed. "Now I have it covered but it wasn't worth the risk before. A magical threat needs to be fought with magical force. I'm sorry that I didn't tell you guys that I was watching you but I only wanted to help. You have to believe that. Please." Her eyes were pleading and even though she was looking at everyone, Cisco knew she was really only asking one of them. Weather it was Caitlin or not he wasn't sure.

"I know I broke your trust," she whispered, looking to the floor, "but all I wanted to do is help. And right now you need me. I know that you don't want to admit it right now but you do. If we don't work together then the purists will win. We are the only ones who can stop them."

"I'm getting really tired of people lying to me," Barry said, ice in his voice.

"She lied to all of us Barry," Iris said, putting her hand on his arm.

"At least she wasn't secretly a super villian," Ralph said. Eyes snapped to him. "What? I know about your past baddies. As far as liars go she's not that bad."

"And she unfortunately has a point," Caitlin says. "We do need her, I'm not enough and we can't exactly call for another spellcaster."

"I mean, we could call your mom right?" Cisco asked. Austin snorted. Caitlin's eyes shifted towards her friend.

"My mom wont help us. It's Austin or nothing," she turned to look at Austin. "I believe you Austin. I don't trust you but I believe you. You get one more chance. Don't mess this up." She held up Austins wand and slammed it on on the consol before storming out of the room.

"Okay, that's enough of that," Cecile said. "Austin, are you going back to the realm or do you need a place to stay?"

"I uh, should probably head back but you guys should know that the alert is down," Austin informed the team members still left in the room.

"Isn't that good?" Iris asked.

"No, it was shut down because they realized that it was a distraction," the guard explained. "There was another break in only this time something was definitely stolen."

"What did they take?" Joe asked.

"It was this machine," she started. "We have exactly on lab that the king permits to experiment on mortal technology. One team was working with radio waves and how they affect magic. They were working on a device capable of broadcasting and amplifying the reach of magic to a larger area less casters involved. It was supposed to be for the guards. Specifically in the case of a spell block decree or lock down."

"So they turned radio waves into magical waves?" Cisco asked. Austin nodded.

"How bad could that be for us?" Iris asked.

"They could send a very powerful spell a very long way a lot easier than normal," Austin sighed.

"So bad, got it," Ralph said.

"Well, this seems like the kind of thing to warn CCPD of except I can't because who would believe we are under attack from wizards," Joe said.

"And you would blow a lot more than just my cover," Austin warned, finally stepping forwards to grab her wand. Barry instantly met her eyes but she looked away.

"Look, I have to get back but whatever is going to happen, it's happening soon. I know it didn't go great last time but we are going to have to take another trip. You have a week tops," she said before casting a spell and disappearing. As soon as she was gone Caitlin flew back into the room.

"Guys, I'm sorry I dragged you all into this," she said.

"It's not your fault Cait," Barry said.

"Yeah, you didn't know she was watching you, and she did save me," Iris said. "Liar or not, she's still a good person."

"Yeah, she's defying her orders just to help us," Ralph said.

"That's what worries me," Caitlin said. "If she can disobey the people she's pledged her life to protect how do we know she won't just turn around and do the same to us?"

"She's not disobeying them," Barry said after a moment of silence. "At least not in her mind."

"What do you mean Barry?" Cecile asked.

"Her job is to protect her king and his people," Barry started. "In her mind, that's what she's doing. Protecting people is more important to her than protecting the laws. She's not unloyal. She's too loyal. She's knowingly doing something that could get her fired or worse because she thinks it can save people."

"Dude, just a second ago you basically hated her," Cisco said, looking at him with furrowed eyebrows.

"No, I was pissed at her," Barry said. "And betrayed. I seem to always be feeling like that. But that doesn't mean that she's not on our side. I've done some stupid shit, lying to Iris about who I was, flashpoint. I made mistakes but I didn't make them maliciously and neither did Austin. We can trust her Caitlin. That I know to be true."

"Okay, you have a point," Caitlin said. "And speaking as someone who is trying to get back a formally evil second personality I guess I can't really judge her too harshly." Once again her hand flew up to her necklace as she took a deep breath in and out.

"So we're trusting her?" Ralph asked.

"A guarded trust but yes," Caitlin said. "We trust her for now."

"Okay, well, we should be getting back to Jenna and I'm sure that all of us could use a little bit of alone time after that," Cecile said, pulling Joe towards the exit.

"I agree with that," Iris said turning to her husband. "Wanna get out of here?" Arry looked down at her and smiled. He put his arm around her and next thing Cisco knew they were gone.

"Well, I don't quite have that exit but I'm going to get going too," Ralph said, heading out.

"You want a breach home?" Cisco asked Caitlin. She didn't say anything. "Caitlin?"

"Hm?" she grunted, not looking up.

"You okay?" Cisco asked. There was another brief pause, then Caitlin blinked and looked up.

"What?" she asked.

"I asked if you wanted a breach home but you were all zone out on me," Cisco said, a small smile finding its way onto his face.

"Yeah, sorry, just a long day I guess," she said.

"The only thing long was that hour," Cisco said laughing before he became serious."Do you really think we can beat these guys?"

"Absolutely," Caitlin said, not skipping a beat. "I'm no level ten but I know what we're capable of, with or without powers. We can do this, we just need the right information."

"So who is going into the realm this time?" he asked.

"I'll...talk to Austin but we need to figure out why your powers didn't work there before we do anything else," she explained.

"Did you hear what she said about the break in?" he asked her. She nodded.

"I didn't go that far and these halls have quite the acoustics," she smiled. "We'll figure this out. We always do."


	22. Chapter 21

Caitlin

January 10th, 2019

Austin had said it would be a week max before the team had to head back to the realm. She was right. Five days after the initial confrontation Caitlin found herself being pulled through a breach that appeared in her bedroom. A moment later she was face planting into Austin's house.

"What the?" she exclaimed. She pushed herself up to see Cisco, Austin and Iris all standing over her.

"Sorry about the kidnapping, desperate times and all," Austin said, offering her hand. "We left Ralph and Barry back home again because we have to work fast and I don't have the time for them to get their bearings."

"Any reason I'm the last to know?" Caitlin asks as Austin pulled her to her feet.

"I wanted to see if these two could make Cisco's powers work again," Austin responded, nodding towards Cisco and Iris.

"Clearly a success," Caitlin grumbled.

"You know, we still don't know why we're here," Iris said.

"Oh right," Austin said. "Uh, there have been big power drains in the area, magical and otherwise."

"So what? They're trying to power their magical death machine?" Cisco asked.

"Or something of the ike," Austin shrugged.

"Do we have any idea where they are hiding?" Iris asked.

"Yeah, I have any idea, the power drains have been systematic, I think they are collecting the power in some sort of generator so that once it actually goes off we won't be able to trace them." Cisco's face scrunched up.

"Don't think too hard about it Cisco, it's a different world," Caitlin said.

"Wait, if they are masking it then how do we know where they are?" Iris asked.

"Well, they are alternating between different neighborhoods, random times and random neighborhoods," Austin said. "They've hit almost all of them but a few have been hit twice. That means I think that they are starting over in their list. They have hit exactly one zero times."

"They're trying to avoid their hideout," Caitlin said.

"Exactly," Austin said.

"So what are we waiting for?" Cisco asked.

"A way to infiltrate, I can't exactly lead in the whole force of the castle guards in there," Austin explained.

"Why not? You have evidence that something is up, you don't have to bring us into the conversation," Iris said.

"I'd get a few people at most and we still don't even know the plan, without that I don't really have a leg to stand on," she responded.

"Well, you can't go in and it seems like they are at least aware that I exist," Caitlin said. "We don't know how much they actually know about us but I don't think this is going to be as easy as joining up."

"Yeah, even if they didn't know about any of us I doubt they'd let us in on the top secret mission in time for us to do anything about it," Cisco said. "We are sketchy af."

"Which is why I was thinking more of the breaking and entering kind of infiltration," Austin said. "We just scope out the area and try to figure out where specifically they are hiding. Once we have enough evidence we can either put a stop to it then, if attack is imminent, or I can bring it to the king without dragging you into this."

"So what? We pretend to be door to door salesmen?" Cisco asked.

"Door to door what now?" Austin asked.

"Not important," Caitlin said. "I do think you're onto something, we can each take a section and split up. Cisco, you and Iris should stick together so that his powers will work."

"Yeah, and I have the comms," Austin said, passing the earpieces out. Caitlin stuck hers in her ear and the team moved out. Caitlin took the southwest buildings, Cisco and Iris took southeast and Austin took the rest since she knew the area the best. Caitlin wasn't quite sure what she was looking for. Flickering lights, dips in magic, surges in magic, something. She had on an outfit of Austin's that helped her to blend in and hide her face. She had taken another one of Austin's potions but just to be on the safe side.

She basically wandered around the streets aimlessly, she figured the meeting place would have to be big enough to hold a lot of people but it wouldn't be in a super populated area. Not necessarily broken down but some place where a large mass of people could work on something in secret without raising any eyebrows. She wasn't exactly in the warehouse district, it was mostly residential homes near her but there was a small market nearby, nothing big enough though. She was about to go check some of the bigger houses when her earpiece started screeching feedback.

"Hel- Cai- Aus- Grab them!" came the voices on comms.

"Guys!" Caitlin exclaimed, ducking behind a building.

"Where are you?" Austin asked. "Can you hear us?" No response.

"Cait, I'm going in, we're going to need backup," Austin breathed. Caitlin's heart was pounding in her chest."

"I'll go get Ralph and Barry," she answered. "I should be able to combine my powers with some of our equipment to track them."

"Good, I'll tell you if I find them but we're low on time. Hurry!"

Caitlin quickly grabbed her wand and after a moment she was in STAR labs with a very bewildered Team Flash.

"Isn't that usually Austin's entrance?" Ralph joked.

"They have Iris and Cisco," Caitlin exclaimed. The smile dropped from Ralph's face and the color drained from Barry's. "We have to go. Now!" She grabbed a laptop from the counter and held out her wand quickly grabbed her wrist.. Barry looked her in the eye for a moment, almost hesitant, but his worry for Iris seemed to overtake his nerves and he placed his hand on her shoulder.

"Keep the city safe," Barry said to Joe, the only team member left. "Get someone in here, call the Legends, Jessie. Someone." Before he could even respond, Caitlin had landed them back in the Spellcaster Realm, she took off running. Barry and Ralph followed after. She heard a frustrated grunt.

"Speed is out," he explained.

"Didn't think it would work," she called back. "Hope you can fight." She, unfortunately, looked back while yelling this and literally ran into Austin who had been running towards them. The two girls collapsed but quickly dusted themselves off.

"Sorry, I was heading back to where we started to work backwards," Ausin said. Caitlin had been too. "You get the stuff?" Caitlin held up the laptop, sat down on a nearby bench, or the spellcaster equivalent of one, and opened it up. She pulled up the program to track the earpieces but there was obviously no wifi. She tried a spell. Nothing. Luckily, Austin's worked and soon there were two blips on the screen about three blocks over and two down.

"That's the old Trixie dual building," Austin said. "They were remodeling it to be fit for a potions invention class."

"Well, clearly someone didn't like that idea," Ralph said, he was fairly focused on the goal for someone in an entirely new dimension. Barry, on the other hand, was almost too focused, like the Realm didn't phase him at all. Ralph was glancing around confused but Barry was just staring with a fire in his eyes. Probably the difference between missing your friends and missing your wife. Unfortunately, this meant that Barry was a little too gunhoe and began running without them.

"Wait! You don't know where you are going!" Caitlin called jumping after him.

"He saw the map, he knows," Austin said, passing her. Ralph was trailing behind them. When they arrived at the building it looked deserted. Not run down or anything, it was clearly being redone, but you couldn't really feel anything, even magic.

"I think they cast a black hole spell," Austin whispered.

"A what?" Ralph asked.

"A spell that basically dampens the energy in the area, it's still there but it's physical reaction is sucked away," Caitlin explained.

"Which is why it feels so weird, everything is basically muffled,:" Austin said. There was alight in the upper window of the building.

"You guys saw that too right?" Ralph asked. Then Caitlin felt it. A pulse of magic.

"Uh oh," she heard Austin say.

"What the hell was that?" Ralph asked.

"Someone using a lot of energy and aiot of magic," Austin said, striding forwards.

"We can't just run in there!" Ralph exclaimed but followed behind the others who didn't share the sentiment.

"We don't have a choice," Austin siad. "The time for planning is done. This is happening now."

"We don't even know what THIS is!" Caitlin exclaimed.

"Maybe not but we know it's bad," Austin said. She walked up to the door. Instead of using some fancy magic to work around whatever protection spells they had, she went with the very mortal option of kicking in the door. They clearly weren't expecting that acting because the doors banged open. The team arched in, spellcasters had wands raised. The lights flickered again as spellcasters around the room raised their wands in opposition. Ralph whimpered.

"In the name of King Richard, I order you to vacate the area immediately," Austin exclaimed. No one moved. "Do it or I'll be forced to call in backup."

"And tell them what?" a woman at the back asked, standing up. "That a castle guard dragged mortals into our business. Not very loyal of you. You're not going to call anyone. Advance!" And then there was chaos.


	23. Chapter 22

Cisco

January 10th, 2019

One moment Cisco was scouring buildings with Iris, the next Iris was unconscious on the ground and Cisco had a wand to his neck.

"Well, hello there fellow spellcaster," he said. "Any reason my friend is on the ground."

"There's something up with her, but you're fair game, play nice or you both die," she hissed. Cisco gulped and nodded. He stupidly assumed that that means he just had to follow her, he could figure out where they were going and then contact the team. Unfortunately, as the girl moved slowly behind him she heard her whisper something. He had just enough time to think "Oh shit" before he too fell to the ground. When he came to his hands were wrapped with chains, Iris was still unconscious next to him, she too was wrapped in chains, though hers seemed to have written all over it.

"It's milic ruins, keeps you two from getting out, magic or no," a man said, sitting in front of them. The woman from before was standing next to him. Wand in her hand, arms crossed.

"What did you do to her?" Cisco growled. "And what was the point of keeping me awake a few seconds longer?"

"Had to make sure whatever was keeping her immune wasn't working on you," she said. "The powers that be really don't want her involved with magic."

"You, on the other hand, are totally unprotected," the man said. "Once we realized that she got close enough to knock her out and keep you at bay. We really don't want to have to hurt you mortal. One day you will serve us." Cisco tried to come up with a smartass remark but the doors at the back of the room flew open.

"The rest of their entourage is here," a new woman said. "We should be able to take them but one of them is a castle guard, she's putting up a fight."

"Has she called in reinforcements?" the man asked. The new woman shook her head.

"It appears as though she has gone rogue," she said.

"You stay here," the first woman said to the man before standing up and following the other woman out the door.

"Looks like your friends will be joining you very soon," the man sneered to Cisco. In response, Cisco tried to pull on his chains but the man just smirked and raised his wand in warning. Cisco stopped moving. A moment later he heard a grunt from Iris who was beginning to wake up. "Ah. Speaking of friends." Iris pulled herself up and looked around confused, blinking, then winced.

"Why does my head hurt?" she rasped.

"Because my associate hit you over the head with a rock," the man said. "Pretty powerful protection spell you've got on you. Care to share how you got it?"

"Piss off," Iris glared.

"Feisty for a mortal aren't you?" he asked, leaning forward. Movement somewhere behind the man caught Cisco's eye. Then there was a grunt and the man collapsed. BArry stood behind him, shaking his hand out.

"Did you just knock him out from behind with one punch?!" Cisco asked.

"Yeah," Barry breathed before moving to remove the chains binding their arms.

"What is going on?" Iris asked, hugging her husband as he freed her.

"Bad guys got the jump on us," Cisco said.

"Austin and Caitlin are holding down the fort downstairs. I managed to slip through the battle but I didn't really plan much after this point," Barry added.

"How many are we up against," Cisco asked.

"Too many," Barry said. "Even if we used Iris to use our abilities I don't think we can take them down. Caitlin is holding a shield and Austin is throwing people into walls. Ralph is just kind of being a distraction."

"So what does that mean for us?" Iris asked.

"We need to bring in the rest of the guard," Barry admitted.

"Won't that end really bad for all of us?" Cisco asked.

"Can't be worse than all of us dying," Barry responded, his face pained.

"Well, how do we do that?" Iris asked.

"We don't. Austin does," Barry said. "I just wanted to make sure I got you guys out before I had her do it."

"Okay, we trust you man," Cisco said. Actually, he had no idea if Barry knew what he was talking about but he knew that he really believed it was the only way. Barry's hand flew to the earpiece to give Austin the go ahead. There was a beat.

"Are you crazy!?" came her response.

"I agree with Barry, we're dying out here," came Caitlin's voice. "It's the only way Austin."

"Fine, just get down here, that thing is almost charged and I can't get to it, if the guard doesn't get here on time we have to at least try to stop this thing alone," was her response, her voice sounding tired.

The team looked at each other and then ran down the stairs. That's when they ran into the women who had knocked Iris out. She raised her wand but Barry grabbed Iris's wrist and snatched it from her hand before she could use it. He threw it over the banister.

"You think that will stop me?" she asked, raising her hands.

"I don't think you want to do that," Barry growled. "You can't tell me you don't know that magic won't work on her. You don't have enough power." The girl looked at Barry, glanced down the stairs and then jumped the banister yelling a warning. They were met with another three spellcasters at the bottom. Cisco essentially pushed Iris in front of him as a human shield. Wands were raised. Then there was a sound, a flash and then a voice.

"In the name of the king! Back off!" a female voice called. Heads turned to see a teenage girl running into the building, wand raised, with at least ten castle guards running behind her.

"You're too late," a voice called as the sound of a machine coming to life could be heard. The rebel casters had shields up everywhere. Cisco was so busy looking everywhere that he didn't even notice Iris break away from his grasp until it was too late. Spells flew and Cisco lost sight of her in the puffs of magic.

"Iris!" Barry had already called out. Then there was a crackle, a wave of energy and an intense heat, all at once.


	24. Chapter 23

Caitlin

January 10th, 2019

"Are you alright?" a voice asked as Caitlin began to blink awake. At some point during the battle her shield had backfired on her, there was a crack and then she went flying into a wall. She blinked her eyes open and tried to push herself up. When she saw who was speaking she fell right back down. Actually, it was more like who the person speaking was standing next to. The guard who had been checking her over was standing not a foot away from Princess Nathalie. Caitlin had seen her lead the charge into the room but was preoccupied with the battle. The shock and awe lasted only a second though as several flavors of panic began to sink in. First and foremost, what the hell just happened? Followed closely by, the Princess is going to lock me up forever. She managed to force a weak nod. This seemed to satisfy the guard and she immediately stood from her crouching position and began storming across the room. Caitlin could hear someone screaming but not in fear, in rage.

Looking around her now, Caitlin could see the machine that had been powered in the corner had been blown to bits. Iris was lying on the floor nearby it, alive but clearly worse for ware. Barry was crouched next to her and Cisco and Ralph were just kind of standing there, being small. Caitlin could see Austin talking to some of the guards while the Princess gave orders to grab the still conscious spellcasters. The screams of rage were coming from the woman who had turned the machine on in the first place.

"No! That's impossible! You'll regret this! We deserve it!" she was screaming.

"Lock her in the dungeon," the princess said simply before walking over to where Iris lay. Caitlin pushed herself up fully and ran over as well.

"And who have we here?" the Princess asked.

"No one important," Austin said, appearing out of seemingly nowhere. The princess eyed the guard.

"And I suppose I'm just supposed to believe you after you've clearly been lying for a long while," she said. "You've clearly known more than you've admitted to in the past."

"I had my reasons."

"None of them good. I'll make sure you will meet with my father for a disciplinary meeting to decide what will be done with you. For now you are relieved of your duties."

"Your majesty-"

"You and your friends need to leave, now. It would be wise to not involve yourself in this farther. It's over."

"We still don't know what they planned to do. There could be others."

"I highly doubt there will be any more strikes and if there are, we will handle it when it gets to that."

"But-"

"No. Austin. Stand down."

Caitlin watched the scene play out in front of her as Austin bowed her head. The princess turned and bumped into Caitlin, she just grunted, gave Caitlin a once over, then proceeded to leave the building.

"I'm sorry," Caitlin said quietly. Austin looked at her.

"This stuff is similar to human technology right?" she asked. Caitlin nodded. "Any chance you can, I don't know,make a copy or something?"

"I'm on it," Cisco said, having been near for the conversation as well, before slipping forward, attempting to be inconspicuous.

"I know what the princess said but I can't just drop this, I need to know," Austin admitted.

"I think you should just listen to her Austin," Barry said, standing up from Iris's side. "It's a miracle none of us are in jail or dead. Maybe let them handle this before you make things worse."

"I get it you're pissed that Iris got hurt," Austin told him. "It was only the blast from the explosion, magic didn't touch her. You know that. I saw what she did. It was her choice to run straight into the thing with a stolen wand." It was true. The scene clearly showed a wand sticking out of the machine dead center of the blast zone. Caitlin was guessing Iris had grabbed it from someone and had just run like hell. She would have been the only one able to make it through the shields.

"Let's just go, all of us," Barry growled, helping Iris up. Cisco walked up behind him and flashed Austin a thumbs up.

"I'll take you guys home," Austin sighed. "I'll gather the stuff I left and make sure everything and everyone is fine and then I'll go. Probably forever." Caitlin knew there was more for her to say but didn't push at the moment. Just held out her hand. Iris pushed herself off the floor, holding her head but looking otherwise uninjured. The team gathered around, held hands and a moment later they were back in STAR labs. Joe, Cecile, Jenna and Wally were all there.

"You're back!" Cecile exclaimed.

"How did it go?" Joe asked.

"We won," Ralph said simply.

"But my ass got canned and now I have to face the music, I just wanted to make sure everything was good here first," Austin added.

"Yeah, and someone better tell me the whole story later because I'm really confused," Wally said.

"Ralph and Barry can, I need to talk to Caitlin Cisco and Iris for a moment," Austin said, motioning for the three to follow her. Barry gave them an uncertain glance but didn't say anything as they left.

"What's going on?" Iris asked as they entered Cisco's lab.

"Are you good Iris? You kind of just ran full force through a lot of magic," Austin asked.

"I feel fine, it can't touch me remember?" Iris said.

"Just wanted to make sure," Austin said. "Cisco, do you have it?"

"If by it you mean a full scan of the machine that blew up then yes," Cisco said, holding up a device.

"Show me," she said. Cisco pulled up the scan on the screen, showing the parts.

"So, this thing was supposed to supercharge a spell but I don't think they can't one," Caitlin said.

"No, it may have been planned to spread the effects of a potion or a charm," Austin said.

"But Iris blew it up before they could right?" Cisco asked.

"I don't know, I felt an energy but I can't say whether it was from the explosion or magic," Austin said. "I don't have much practice with magical essences."

"Yeah, but your essence is naturally calm, wouldn't you be able to detect the difference?" Caitlin asked. "I was kind of unconscious so I didn't really pay much attention."

"What makes you think my essence is calming?" Austin asked. "People say my magic feels like a firecracker." Caitlin looked confused, her hand reached to touch her necklace.

"Yeah but the necklace you gave me has a calming effect," Caitlin said. "I guess it doesn't really matter though."

"What necklace?" Austin asked. Caitlin got a confused look on her face, pulling the chain of her necklace up. Austin looked confused for a moment before briefly melting into something else.

"Right, that, the calming effect was on purpose," Austin said, eyes fluttering away. "But yeah, it doesn't matter. We just need to find out what the plan was in case it did work or they try again."

"What's that blue thing on the scan?" Iris asked. Heads turned. There was a major green power source on the machine but barely visible underneath it was a blue light.

"Is that glass in there?" Cisco asked.

"Did they have a container or something in there?" Iris asked.

"That looks familiar," Caitlin said. "Austin, didn't you say the magic vault was breached? Hat looks an awful lot like magical essence."

"Yeah, I did," Austin said thoughtfully.

"So what were they trying to do?" Cisco asked.

"Oh my Moon goddess!" Austin exclaimed. 'They were trying to build an army!"

"Come again," Caitlin said.

"You see how the green power source has dark patches?" she asked. "That's because whatever concoction was in there was probably dak magic."

"Well, that doesn't sound good," Cisco said.

"No, dark magic is powerful and can do almost anything but at the price of corrupting the user," Austin said.

"So they were mixing the stole family magics with dark magic and trying to transmit it out to them?" Iris asked.

"Which would corrupt them and turn every spellcaster towards their cause," Cisco added.

"Well, obviously that didn't work," Caitlin said.

"Yeah, I guess Iris did blow it up on time," Austin said.

"It's odd though, you'd expect there to be more left over essence in the machine, and there's no way they could possibly have gotten samples of every families magic before the guards found them," Caitlin said.

"They could have just gotten as many as they could," Iris said. "Or maybe they got the ones that included the most people. They could also have been planning multiple runs and this was just the start."

"They seemed pretty convinced that this one spell would doom us though," Cisco said. Through all of this, Austin stayed silent.

"I mean, I guess they could have cherry picked the people they influenced but then we know it didn't work because the royal family would have been the first pick and the princess was fine," Caitlin said.

"Unless she wasn't," Austin said quietly. Heads turned towards her.

"What?" Cisco asked. Austin turned, a look of horror on her face.

"Run," she said, then drew her wand and darted down the hall. The team instantly followed her, confused.

"Austin? What's going on?" Iris asked, as Caitlin drew her wand as well, ready for whatever Austin was worried about. Austin continued to dart down the hall, putting on a new burst of speed as she neared the cortex. As the came towards the doors she began to call a spell.

"Epanmd!" she called. Then, like a snap, as soon as the words left her mouth, perhaps even a millisecond before she finished speaking, a blast came from the room. The next thing Caitlin knew, her wand was flying from her hand and she was hitting a wall. Then nothing.


	25. Chapter 24

Iris

January 10th, 2019

Iris couldn't stop the yelp from passing her lips as she saw Austin, Caitlin and Cisco get snapped back into the wall like ragdolls. She hurriedly ran forward to see what had occurred in the cortex. She didn't know what to expect but it certainly wasn't her husband standing in the middle of the room, calmly surveying it. Especially since everyone else in the room was unconscious.

"Barry?" she asked. He turned towards her and smiled.

"Iris," he said. She rand forward to hug him and he wrapped his arms around her.

"What happened?" she asked, pulling away and looking around. He didn't respond right

away. After a moment he looked behind her and pushed past her.

"Wait here for a minute," he said as he did so. Iris turned to watch him crouch down next to Austin and Caitlin on the ground. She expected him to check them over or something but instead he just kind of looked at them. Then he reached his hand out and picked up Austin's wand from where it lay on the floor next to her. Then he did the same for Caitlin's.

"What are you doing?" Iris as he walked back towards her. "They need help!"

"Shhhhhh," Barry uttered as he took both wands in both hands.

"Barry, you can't stand magic-" Iris tried to say but broke off when he abruptly snapped both wand in two over his leg and threw the pieces in the trash can. "What the hell!?"

"It's okay," Barry said. "But we should get out of here before any of them wake up. My spell should have done much more damage but Austin decided to interfere."

"YOUR spell?" Iris asked bewildered. He grabbed her wrist and she tried to pull it away. "Barry, what the hell is going on here?"

"I'll explain in a minute," Barry said pulling her into a strong side hug and pulling out a wand. Iris's eyes grew wide.

"You're a spellcaster," Iris breathed. It wasn't a question.

"Yes, I am," he said. "Peiw!" There was a flash. Nothing visible happened but Iris had no doubt he had done whatever he intended to do. Then, for a moment she saw a strike of electricity as he used his speed for...something. As soon as he had done that though, he cast another spell and Iris found herself in a room she had never seen before. There was another spark of electricity for a moment and then he finally let go of her.

"Where are we?" Iris growled angrily.

"My old room," Barry said. "I spent many summers here when I was attending school."

"What are you even talking about?" Iris asked. "And how could you not tell me you were a spellcaster?"

"My father used to be king of the Realm," Barry said. "Then he gave it all up for my mother. A mortal. He had everything and he decided to throw it away for love. There are few things I wouldn't do for you Iris but I could never have sat back and watched someone else run my kingdom. I wouldn't have been a coward like my dad. I would have fought for you."

"Your father was king? Your a royal?" Iris asked.

"Yes," Barry said. "Now my uncle sits on the throne while my cousin holds the title of princess. I am still a prince though, and next in line for the throne when my uncle passes. That makes you a princess too."

"Why didn't you say anything before? When all of this was going on?" Iris asked him.

"Because I was a coward," Barry said. "Foolishly scared of my powers but all of this has made me realize that my true potential isn't something to fear, it is something to celebrate. To forge a better world where spellcasters unite all." Iris stared silently for a moment.

"Why did you try to blow up the cortex?" she dared.

"As much as the team has done for me, they are mortals, they are simply a hindrance to our plans. I knew they would never sit still and follow orders," Barry said. "You on the other hand, are smart. You can be by my side when my uncle, cousin and I bring the world to a new age of magic."

"The spell worked didn't it?" Iris asked, tears forming. "The machine, they were drying to darken the magic for the royal family and they did. That includes you. This isn't you Barry!"

"It is me Iris!" Barry yelled. "It has been for a long time. I have all this power I was just afraid of what it would mean for me to use it. I almost killed someone with it once you know. Austin stopped me and I got scared. Scared of reaching my full potential. If I hadn't stopped then maybe mortals and spellcasters alike would have seen the light."

"You're her friend, the one who caused the Purists to form."

"My only regret is that I wasn't in the front lines with them."

"Barry, please. You're stronger than this," Iris said, cupping her hands around his face. She looked him in the eyes. For a moment they seemed to soften.

"Iris, I want you to be on my side but if you continue to push me I'm going to have no choice but to take drastic measures," Barry gritted.

"You wont hurt me Barry, I know you won't," Iris told him softly.

"I would never hurt you Iris," Barry said. "Of course I wouldn't. But until I know you wont run off and do something stupid I'm going to have to keep you safe."

"What?" Iris asked.

"There's some changes of clothes in the wardrobe if you want and the bathroom is right there," Barry said, pointing. Then he stepped away from her and swiftly exited the room, slamming the door behind him. Iris immediately ran towards the door only to find it locked. She banged on it crying for what felt like hours but was probably closer to twenty minutes. When the tears finally stopped Iris sank down against the door and rested her head against it. How had she not known. The way he acted around wands, how he seemed to know Austin better than the rest of them, his surprising knowledge of things he shouldn't know. It was all right there. How could he not have told her. Even when he was in his right mind. She assumed that a lot of what he was saying was true. He really had been scared of his magic and if he was the person Austin had told them about then she understood, at least a little. He should have trusted her though. She would have been there for him. The whole thing just made her so angry. Angrier than now even as she was locked in a room by her husband. Without knowing where she was, only that it was probably somewhere in the Spellcaster Realm, Iris didn't know how to escape and even if she did, she wouldn't know where to go. If Austin and Caitlin's lessons were to be believed, the royal family were powerful, Barry included. Maybe that's why his transport spell worked on her when she definitely didn't want to go.

So, instead she set her mind to learning as much about her surroundings as possible. She found the wardrobe quickly and pulled it open to reveal several dresses hanging up. They were beautiful and in any other situation, Iris would happily wear one but she felt like staying in her same outfit was the only thing keeping her sane. She shut the closet doors and made her way over to the large bed in the center of the room, there was a canopy over top and embroidered sheets. Then she looked up and saw the window. Well, the curtains. She eagerly rand over and threw them open. Out the window she could see for what seemed to be miles. Rows of houses, shopping centers, everything she had seen up close when chasing down the Purists. Then the view began to shift. Like, the room itself was moving. She couldn't feel it but she could see it. When it stopped the view was mostly just a slightly different angle. She knew where she was now. It was obvious in hindsight, after all, Barry was a royal, she should have guessed that he would have stashed her in the castle.

After coming to hear realization, Iris slumped down on the bed in defeat. She couldn't break out of a castle filled with guards even with her weird anti magic field. She could fight but she doubted she could take them all on, even on an even playing field. The only solution was to drag Barry out of this herself. So she sat and she waited.


	26. Chapter 25

Cisco

Cisco's eyes blinked open about ten minutes after the initial blast, he sat up, rubbing his head.

"What happened?" he heard Ralph ask from somewhere near him. His voice was thick and groggy.

"There was some sort of flash," Wally said, pulling his father up. Across the room, Austin and Caitlin were also starting to come to while Cecile had actually been one of the first ones awake and was currently leaning on the desk for support.

"Wait, where is Iris? She was with us when everything exploded," Ralph exclaimed. Cisco looked around, he didn't see Iris but saw Caitlin scrambling to her feet in a panic.

"Where's my wand?" she asked. "It was in my hand when I went down." Austin walked up behind her with her face ghostly pale, barely moving at all.

"We'll find it Caitlin but first we need to find my daughter, and Barry," Joe told the panicked Spellcaster.

"They're not here," Austin said, her voice was hollow and Barry above a whisper.

"Then where the hell are they?" Cisco asked, worried for his friends. Austin didn't get a chance to answer because she was cut off by a wail. Caitlin stumbled over to the trash can and pulled something out of it. It was her wand, broken in two pieces. Austin turned to look in her direction and fell to her knees, grabbing the broken pieces of her own wand in a trance like state. CIsco saw a tear trickle down her eye. Caitlin was practically hyperventilating.

"What happened?" Cecile asked.

"I don't suppose they just fell like that?" Ralph interjected.

"You can get them fixed right, or maybe get new ones?" Cecile questioned, her eyes soft.

"Wands don't work like that, it will take time to find new ones that channel our energy right and even longer to break them in," Caitlin said through sobs. "I can't get one, going back to the realm now would be suicide."

"Something tells me that explosion was deliberate," Joe said. "Last thing that I remember before it happened was Austin shouting something."

"It was a spell," Cisco said.

"What did you do?" Wally asked, storming towards the redhead.

"She didn't do anything, it was a dampening spell, she was trying to lessen the impact of the explosion," Caitlin said, wiping her tears and standing up. She still clutched her wandpieces to her chest. "What I don't know is why. How did you know something was going to happen, and how did you know it was going to happen in here?" Austin didn't say anything, just continued to stare at the ground, numb.

"Austin," Joe barked. "What happened here and what did it do to my kids?" She finally glanced up slowly and looked at Caitlin.

"I'm so sorry," she whispered.

"We're gonna need more than sorry Red," Ralph said. Austin looked back at him and then slowly stood up. She braced herself against a chair and took a shaky breath.

"Sorry is the best I can give you," We breathed finally. "Anything else will break your hearts."

"I'll break something if you don't tell me where my daughter is," Joe growled.

"She's fine, I think. Probably," Austin said, not sounding convincing. Joe glared at her. "If she's not her that probably means he took her with him, which could mean a lot of things, but does mean that he probably wants to keep her safe, at the very least, to himself."

"Who does?" Cisco asked. There was a pause where Austin looked like a deer caught in the headlights.

"Barry."

"Come again?" Caitlin asked.

"Barry took Iris. He tried to blow us up and when that didn't work he ran and he took Iris with him."

"Why would Barry want to blow us up?" Wally asked.

"He doesn't, the Purists do. They're the ones calling the shots now."

"I'm confused," Ralph said. "How do the purists wanting us blown up make Barry do it?"

"If they were controlling him," Caitlin realized, her face lighting up in awe.

"But we blew up their machine," Cisco said. "Even if we didn't I thought that controlled people through their magic."

"Which is a problem seeing as Barry has magic," Austin said carefully, drawing out her words.

"No he doesn't. Barry hates magic," Caitlin said. "I would know if Barry had magic!"

"He's afraid of magic because he knows what it can do. What he can do," Austin pleaded. "He never told anyone outside of the Realm. Those that knew him there didn't know who he really was. Except me, his uncle and his cousin."

"Barry doesn't have any other family," Joe said.

"Sometimes I think he wished that were true, if only to uncomplicate his life," austin said sadly. "The truth is, Barry is a Spellcaster."

"No," Caitlin said.

"Cait-"

"No. Barry Isn't a Spellcaster, he would have told me. I would know."

"Caitlin!" Austin barked. "I know this is hard, believe me I do, but Barry is a Spellcaster, a very powerful one at that. The sooner accept that the sooner we can save Iris."

"Why does she need saving? Barry would never hurt her," Wally asked.

"Not at first, but I don't know how Barry is going to react to this spell, or how Iris will react to Barry. One little thing going wrong could spell bad news for Iris," Austin warned.

"This is insane, even if Barry is a Spellcaster, which is the insane part, magic doesn't affect Iris, she'll be fine. In his right mind or not, Barry could ever physically hurt her," Ralph said.

"Maybe not but she won't be invulnerable forever, especially if he gets mad," Austin said. "Barry has great power and while it protects Iris now, h can take it away in an instant."

"Wait, BARRY is why magic doesn't affect Iris?" Cisco asked in disbelief.

"Her engagement ring, he charmed it years ago with a powerful spell. So that whoever wore it would be forever protected from his past."

"Oh my God," Cecile said. "You're telling the truth, aren't you?"

"No! No! Are you all crazy? Barry isn't a Spellcaster. If he was that powerful I would feel it when he cast a spell. And he wouldn't keep that from me, he wouldn't let me keep feeling alone. He wouldn't let me think I was doing this alone if he could do all that!" Caitlin said, frantic, tears once again threatening to spill.

"Caitlin, Barry hasn't used magic in years," Austin said in a calm voice. "The ring charm was the last one here ever cast. He snapped his wand directly after it and handed it to me. Even if you knew you would have been alone, Barry made sure of that."

"He wouldn't do that," Caitlin said. "No Spellcaster would. We wouldn't snap our wands, cutting us off from our power. It's like cutting off our life force. It's a physical pain."

"In his mind it was either that or risk hurting someone else," Austin said, at the questioning looks she got, she continued. "My friend, the one who inadvertently sparked the Purist movement. That was Barry."

"No," Cisco said, tears starting to well in his own eyes." He could never do that."

"And he didn't because I was there," Austin said. "He wanted to make sure it never happened again. But he blames himself for the situation we are in now. I get that you are mad and upset, all of you, but Barry didn't want any part of this. Not anymore. He wanted to forget it ever happened. For all intents and purposes Barry was no longer a practicing Spellcaster. Telling you about it meant making it real again. I don't know if he could have handled that. Even Iris didn't know."

"That explains the journals, you weren't watching Caitlin, you were watching Barry, making sure he was okay," Cecile said.

"Yes," Austin nodded. "He's still my friend and it's still my job to protect him, no matter what. Though I would still choose to regardless." Cisco noticed Caitlin go white at something Austin said.

"No," she whispered. "Austin, please don't tell me...please tell me you're kidding, that you misspoke. Barry can't be them."

"I wish I could tell you differently, for all our sakes," she replied solemnly.

"Barry can't be who?" Joe asked.

"The Descendant," Austin said simply.

"The what?" Ralph asked.

"A myth," Caitlin said. "It was said that when the former kind gave up his throne, he did so he could marry a mortal woman and that she had his child. People said that there was another out there with claim to the royal throne of the Realm."

"Wait, so Barry's a royal?" Wally asked.

"King Henry died before I was born but when I met Barry I didn't know who he was. I found out later, by accident, and I promised to always keep his secret. Barry isn't just a Spellcaster, he is a prince and first in line for the throne, after his uncle, due to the arrangement Alexander had with his brother. He is a level ten master caster and was chosen by the Moon Goddess on the Day of the Eclipse. Essentially, he's the most powerful Spellcaster alive, maybe the most powerful ever, and the bad guys don't even know that they have control over him yet."

"Oh that's bad," Cisco said.

"This whole time," Caitlin said. "How could I not see it? How could he lie to my face like that? Every day."

"He was scared Caitlin," Austin said.

"That's not enough. I thought I was alone," Caitlin said.

"You were never alone Caitlin," Austin said. "You never will be."

"I understand him not saying anything before but after everything started...he had no excuse. He has done far worse in the face of fear Austin, you know that," she said.

"Perhaps, but he tried," Austin said. "He did more for you than I ever thought he would do again."

"What do you mean? He didn't do anything, that's the problem," she said.

"I never gave you any necklace Caitlin. You said it had a calming magical essence? That's Barry." Caitlin looked down and grasped the trinket.

"I found this in my apartment on Filmya day," she said quietly.

"Look, I think we are all upset and confused but right now we have bigger things to worry about than Barry lying to us," Joe said.

"You mean like Barry trying to kill us?" Ralph asked.

"Ralph!" Cisco barked.

"No, he's right," Caitlin said. "If Barry is as powerful as Austin says and he's being influenced by the Purists, we're all in danger. We need a plan, fast. Austin, you clearly know him best. Where would he have taken Iris?"

"I have a few ideas but you're not gonna like them."


	27. Chapter 26

Iris

Iris ended up waiting several hours for Barry to return, it was evening by the time he did. Iris had fallen asleep on her bed and awoke to Barry pulling her jacket off of her.

"Hu? Wha? What's going on?" she asked, sitting up quickly, getting trapped in her half removed jacket. Barry laughed.

"You fell asleep in your same clothes," he said. "I can have someone bring a night gown, I didn't expect you to need it yet."

"What else did you expect me to do locked in a room alone?" she asked, jerking away as she remembered where she was.

"I know, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that but there was so much to do. I couldn't keep an eye on you and take care of things," he said.

"Why assume I need to have eyes on me?" He gave her a pointed look.

"You and I both know that you don't see things my way yet. You will eventually but until then I have to keep you here and safe."

"But why Barry? This isn't you. You still have your memories right? The spell they cast didn't take those. You still love me, you still remember our friends and our family. Our human friends and family who you've always seen as equals."

"I never saw them as equals, even the old me was afraid to hurt them. All that spell did was show me the truth. That magic shouldn't be feared...we don't have to have this conversation again Iris. It won't change anything. Words won't sway me, even yours." Iris didn't say anything, instead opting for placing her palm on his cheek. He nuzzled into her touch, like everything was normal. Like they were having a quiet night at home. He closed his eyes for a moment, then took his hand in his.

"Things can be normal if you want them to be," he said, his eyes glowing with love. "We can pretend that whatever is happening out there isn't happening. When we're in here it's just you and me. Barry and Iris. Together."

"There is no normal for us Barry, not until you're better," she said sadly, pulling her hand away. His eyes seemed to dim even as the purple shone through his irises. The small smile on his face falling. She pulled herself to one side of the bed and curled her knees into herself. "I'll take that nighty if you're still offering."

"I'll be right back," he said. She felt the bed shift as he stood. There was a beat of silence before footsteps and the sound of the door opening and shutting. How can he seem so much like himself in one moment and so...lost in the next? Barry was in there, she knew it, but he was buried under powerful dark magic that Iris had no hope of understanding. The only people that could were either Barry, who would be no help in this instance, or were Austin and Caitlin who were exiled from the castle if not the Realm itself. Could Iris even break through the magic? Were memories and emotions more powerful than the magic that enslaved her husband to the darkness? She chose not to dwell on it anymore that night as Barry returned and handed her a freshly washed and dried nightgown. Iris grabbed it without looking at him and ran into the attached bathroom, unable to bring herself to change in front of him.

When she returned from the bathroom, freshly washed and clothed, Barry was reading a book on the bed. He too was in his night clothes and looked up at her as she entered the room, a hint of a smile on his face but little else. Iris crawled under the covers on the far side of the bed and shut her eyes, not even asking how to turn the lights off, there were no switches, she'd checked. Then, like she'd blinked, it was morning. The light filtered through the window, rousing her from her dreamless night. She shifted slightly to find that at some point in the night, she and Barry had drifted together, his arm draped over her middle. He looked peaceful and decidedly not evil in the glow of the morning. She slowly pulled herself from under his and stepped to the window. The room had once again moved, this time giving a view of the sunrise over the hills. It wasn't that different from sunrises back home except for the deeper pink and light purple colors painting the sky. They were colors she would usually have associated with a sunset but it didn't give off the same feeling. She was torn from her moment of calm by her husband shifting on the bed.

"Iris?" he mumbled.

"I'm here," she said instinctively before biting down on her lip. He looked up from the bed and his eyes met hers briefly. She shifted her head away. She heard him sigh.

"You're still not okay with this." It wasn't a question.

"Did you think I would be?"

"If you were I'd be concerned."

"Why? Cuz I'd be brainwashed too?"

"No, because then you wouldn't be Iris." He smiled and pushed off the bed. "You should have breakfast with us. I'll send someone."

"What happened to keeping me here?"

Barry smirked. "Only when you're not with me. I'll make sure to have my most highly trained guards transport you. For both your protection and to make sure you don't do anything stupid. I don't want to hurt you but I will if I have to." His eyes flashed that purple once again and he began preparing for the day. Iris just pushed further into her corner of the room.

"You should get ready soon, breakfast will be in a half hour," he said once he was done dressing.

"And if I don't want to go?"

"You do. You want to see outside this room." He held her eyes for a moment and then looked away, not shyly, it was like looking into the eyes of an old friend. Which she supposed they were, married or not, evil spell or not.

"I'll be ready in ten," she responded indignantly. He nodded and stepped out of the room. Ten minutes later iris was dressed in the most casual dress she could find in the closet, she had tied her hair up since she didn't have a lot of time to do anything fancy. Her makeup had already run out at this point and she refused to ask for anything. Then there was a knock at the door.

"My lady?" a feminine voice asked.

"Who are you?" Iris responded, holding her breath.

"I'm one of the guards, the prince has sent me to fetch you for breakfast."

"Just one of you?"

"No," another voice, this one male, responded. "There are three of us total."

"Are you waiting for me to open the door? Because it's spelled, I can't." The door opened from the outside a moment later.

"No, ma'am, just waiting permission."

"So I'm a prisoner with rights now hu?"

"The prince says he keeps you here for your safety, you're no prisoner. You're our princess," the final guard, also female, bowed slightly. Iris sighed.

"Fine, let's just get this over with," she said and stepped out the door. The three guards had their wands out, she didn't dare make a break for it. "Take me to breakfast."

Author's Note: Hey guys! I rarely do these on here but I'm in a bind. I'm writing a paper for a class on fanfiction and I was hoping to get quotes from some writers in the community about the community. I can cite you using your user name or real name depending. If you want to be a part of it message me and I'll look at your profile to make sure I can use your info (looking for a range of people, don't want too many in one fandom). Thanks so much!


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